Musical acts to build up to festival

Apr. 8—For Lupe Garcia, "Music is feeling it. The way you feel music is very important."

Garcia plays saxophone for Los Huracanes Del Norte, the Norteño band featured this Saturday night at the Clovis Music Festival at the Curry County Events Center.

Garcia said the show is going to be special.

"We're doing our 50th anniversary tour," Garcia said. "We're bringing a lot of musicians with us. They'll be warming the crowd up with banda and mariachi music. We'll probably join them for a few songs."

Events Center General Manager K.C. Messick said this won't be 90-minute or two-hour show. "Antonio, the drummer with the band, asked me 'How long can we go?'"

Los Huracanes wrap up this year's music festival, which kicks off Monday with local bands performing at area businesses in a series of concerts called Clovis Takes the Stage.

Friday's show at the Curry County Events Center opens at 6:30 p.m. Uncle Kracker takes the stage at 8 p.m. and The Eli Young Band is on at 9:30 p.m.

Los Huracanes Del Norte's roots go into the Mexican states of Jalisco and Michoacan and on into California in the United States.

"I was the first one of my family born in the United States," Garcia said. "My older brothers and sister were born in Mexico."

Garcia said the band's first record was produced in Berkeley, Calif. In 1972.

A few years later the family moved to eastern New Mexico.

"Cheap land," Garcia said. "That's what brought us here."

Garcia said the family chose some land in Roosevelt County "where we could build a big house, build shops, a place to work on our bus, a studio."

Garcia said other bands and recording artists made their way to the family home north of Portales on U.S. 70.

"We stopped doing that," Garcia said. "It got to be too much of a hassle."

Los Huracanes Del Norte celebrated its 50th anniversary by getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California.

Talk of Hollywood brings to mind movies.

"We've been in 20-some movies," Garcia said. "A lot of them are Mexican movies. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Of the band's music Garcia said "all the music we make are my favorites."

"I wish they were all big hits," Garcia said. "Once in a while have a hit."

Garcia spoke fondly of "the old days" when a hit record would spend a long time on the charts.

"Used to be if we had a hit it would last a year," Garcia said. "Those times are pretty much gone, nowadays something may be a huge hit for two weeks."

Los Huracanes Del Norte has been as far north as Seattle, as east as Boston, south into Mexico and on into Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

"We're trying to get some concerts in Colombia," Garcia said about the South American country. "We have a strong fan base in Colombia. In a matter of time we'll get over there."

Messick said he expects Saturday night's show will be three to four hours long.

"Where can you go to see a music festival that has this kind of variety," Messick said. "It's going to be cool."