Ramiro Burr
San Antonio Express-News

Tejano is an original American musical style, as relevant as country, rock or blues, says accordionist Joel Guzman. That belief was the inspiration for his new roots music album "Polkas, Gritos y Acordeones."

"I consider Tejano music an American art form, and my inspiration came from the fact we're sitting on a generation of accordion players and songwriters here in the United States that have created a whole new sub-genre within what used to be regional Mexican," Guzman said from his home in Buda. Guzman's message has made it all the way to the Grammy Awards, which will be handed out tonight in Los Angeles. "Polkas" is nominated for best Tejano album.

The album, which also features David Lee Garza of Los Musicales and Sunny Sauceda of Grupo Vida, is competing against a slate of San Antonians: Jay Perez for "Mi Destino"; Emilio, "Entre Amigos"; Stefani Montiel, "Takin' on the World"; and Grupo Vida, "Vivo."

Tejano artists used to compete in the regional Mexican category, which Guzman said was an awkward fit.

"To me, Tejano is an art form. It's from Texas. So that kind of inspired me to dig and find songs that really were, not really underground, but tunes that were alegre — that kind of typified the beauty of the accordion style that David and Sunny have."

"Polkas, Gritos y Acordeones" features 10 songs, including a set-closing medley. The trio specifically avoided the better-known classics, with the exception of "Atotonilco," one of the standards in the conjunto canon.

"These songs were the first polkas we learned as accordion players, and we thought it would be one way to keep them alive," Garza said.

Initially, most of the polkas were instrumental.

"Joel and I figured out that if we could put some vocals on a few of them, we could get the CD into the Wal-Marts and Target outlets," Garza said.

Guzman said one of the most influential tunes for him was "El Circo," one of the late Tony De La Rosa's standards.

"Everybody in Tejano knows it as 'El Circo,' but one time I was doing some concerts with Asleep at the Wheel, and they wanted me to play something. They asked, 'Do you know "Alabama Jubilee"'? I said, 'Man, I'm not sure.'

"And then they go playing it, and I go, 'I know that one.' I always thought Tony wrote it. That to me is just a little picture of how American our music is. We take snippets of our European counterparts, bits from country and rock."

For his next project, Guzman said he has plans to tap other conjunto legends, such as Paulina Bernal of the seminal Conjunto Bernal.

Sauceda, who is known for his wild stage antics with Grupo Vida, said he was humbled by the experience of working with Guzman and Garza.

"I loved every part of it. Being the new guy in town, doing this for almost 10 years now, I'm the young pup compared to them," he said. "But if you haven't been doing it for more than 20 years, you're still young.

"I've got to be up front with you. I'm still the guy from the flea market on Highway 16, the guy that used to play five hours for $40, that's me. You can't forget those days. It's intimidating, but you know what, I learned a lot, I gained a lot of experience. I learned that even though we all play the accordion, it's totally different. So it's a good feeling."

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