A homecoming concert at the Rialto celebrates the community where Joey Burns and John Convertino found their musical voice.
Mariachi Luz de Luna showed up at his home on the night before Joey Burns and his family were set to leave Tucson for Boise, Idaho, in summer 2020.
“It was the best way to have left Tucson on such a spirited high note,” Burns recalled last week as the band prepared for a Tucson reunion at Rialto Theatre on Sunday, June 19. People are also reading… “El Mirador” is a love letter to Tucson, wrapped in what the liner notes describes as “haunting desert noir” with nods to rock and regional folk and infectious Latin rhythms influenced by cumbia, conjunto and mariachi. Beneath those driving melodies is messages and sentiments of finding unity amidst the social disorder borne out of the COVID era and government mandates that divided the nation.
“All of our gear is stored in Tucson. Most of our band lives in Tucson. It’s an essential meeting point for us, literally and figuratively,” Burns said. “And we’ve always loved Tucson. There is something about returning to the Sonoran Desert and the community in and around Tucson that is hard to describe in words actually.”
Calexico has always sounded like Tucson, from the driving Mexican and mariachi accents to the sun-drenched desert rock heartbeat.“There’s a lot of connection for us in many ways. I don’t know where to start. I just feel like there are so many friends, so many musicians, so many connections to the people, to the history, to the landscape, the connection to our beautiful Southern border between the U.S. and Mexico and using that as a window to the world,” Burns said.
In addition to Burns, Convertino and Mendoza, Calexico will include Tucson musicians Brian Lopez, Jacob Valenzuela and Rick Peron, and New York bassist Scott Colberg.