Country duo Kat & Alex's 'Side A/Lado B' EP reflects on couple's Latino and American roots

"Are you a Mexican from Texas?"

For 28-year-old Alejandro Garrido, aka half of rising country duo Kat and Alex's Alex Georgia, the question is a popular one asked by one of their over half-million – often Mexican or Mexican-American – country music fans on TikTok.

"No, I'm not," Georgia says. "I'm Puerto Rican, born in Miami and raised in northwestern Georgia. My wife (Kat Luna) is Cuban and raised in Miami around Cuban cowboys who listened to Garth Brooks and classic country artists."

For a significant portion of country music's history, the genre's definition of Latino artistry has almost been exclusively occupied by the likes of San Benito, Texas-born Freddy Fender, Sabinal, Texas-based Johnny Rodriguez, Guadalajara, Mexico's ranchera icon Vincente Fernández, and modern names like San Marcos, Texas' Star de Azlan, San Antonio-based "Tex-Mex" artist Veronique Medrano, El Paso's Valerie Ponzio, plus New Mexico-born Frank Ray.

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Save the vaunted, three-plus decade run of the Mexican-Cuban, Miami-rooted Mavericks, so much of the genre's roots in Mexican and Mexican-American artistry – blended with the American pop-cultural boom surrounding food and alcohol of Mexican origins – has created a culture driven by romanticizing rural, fajita-munching vaqueros and tequila-swilling senoritas dominating Latino interactions in country music.

However, Latin America is a 20-country region with nearly 700 million people. Thus, presuming any level of monolithic notions about these people and their way of life is inherently short-sighted and wrong.

Via Kat & Alex's Hispanic Heritage Month-released bilingual "Side A/Lado B" EP (chosen because they "own so many records, (their) house looks like a vintage store"), they aim to continue to change both the positive trajectory of their careers as well as expand narrow-minded notions surrounding the Latino experience in the genre.

The EP will feature bilingual versions of six songs. For Georgia, the desire to constantly reflect the couple's Latino and American roots has been imperative. He notes that Spanish is both his and his wife's first language.

"We wouldn't have it any other way," 21-year-old Luna says.

Of the collection, most notable is their version of "Marry You," a songwriting collaboration between Maren Morris and now-deceased producer Busbee.

The song was originally an uncut demo written by Morris as a tribute to her husband, Ryan Hurd. For Kat & Alex, the song serves as a way to note how they, as a married couple in love, are unified as much by their dreams of success as by the potential of their lives together. It also gave them the ability, even if second-hand, to work with the highly acclaimed producer.

"It's also really cool to work with so many writers who say, 'I want to write some songs in Spanish today,'" adds Georgia about a growing trend in country music songwriting rooms that benefits Kat & Alex:

There are more artists and songwriters in Nashville with conversational-level skills with the language than ever before.

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"(Songwriter) Luke Preston once told us he had taken Spanish in college, then sat down and wrote two of our favorite lines in our entire catalog of music," says Luna.

To wit, when asked to decide which of their EP singles – "I Want It All" or the translated "Yo Quiero Amarte" –  they favored, Luna smiled, laughed, then composed herself and stated:

"For me, I can't compare. Translations – especially English to Spanish – change the meanings of songs. So I love them equally, in different ways."

Georgia adds – in an exclusive – that the "Side A" Kat & Alex EP will contain a bilingual "I Want It All" version, combining the two languages.

In the past 12 months, the duo has become a red carpet staple at award shows, video regulars in CMT's rotation, took the stage at Nissan Stadium in Nashville during CMA Fest and debuted at the Grand Ole Opry.

Just two years prior, they were breaking ground as Latino country artists as contestants in reality television singing competitions.

Regarding their pairing being fostered by Luke Bryan's encouragement while they were both competitors on "American Idol" in 2020, Georgia notes that Bryan "knows his stuff" about country music. Luna added that she's idolized Bryan "since childhood," and that his mentorship has been "surreal."

"It's been a beautiful journey," Georgia says. "On social media, the time we've spent working probably looks beautiful, but people don't see the long nights of blood, sweat, and tears of fighting for what we believe in."

Georgia finds no cut-and-dry  definition of what it means to be a "Latino country artist." Instead, he finds that the growth of opinions and options related to "speaking truth in country music " is the most critical concept to celebrate in the genre's modern era.

Georgia notes that Latino and American cultures share faith, family, food and friends as core values in country music.

"When it comes to country music, the culture we share is starting to transcend everything else," he says. "Just like other country artists, we love who we are and what we do and are glad that people are impacted by our music. This is an exciting time."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Country duo Kat & Alex's Side A/Lado B expands on pair's Latino roots