The monumental musical project, Sin Fronteras, out September 2023, by Latin Grammy winner Mireya Ramos and the Poor Choices proves this 5,525-mile-long expanse that physically bisects the two countries and cultures doesn’t spiritually separate them. It is a ranchera and country dialogue that could only happen in Kansas City, Missouri which has become a second home for the New York City-based Mireya.
Sin Fronteras
The U.S. border with Mexico has always been a fault line where cultural and political forces clash and meld with one another in a close embrace that is centuries old.
Sin Fronteras
Mireya Ramos & The Poor Choices
“Sin Fronteras”, Mireya Ramos’ new collaborative album with Kansas City favorites, The Poor Choices is out now on all platforms!
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”Sin Fronteras showcases the similarities between styles of music and traditions that on the surface may seem very different. I like that this album sparks a conversation—that’s always been important to me as an artist,
Mireya Ramos
Fusing Ranchera and Country
Mireya is a vocalist, violinist, composer, and arranger, and the founder of Flor de Toloache, NYC’s first and only all-women mariachi band. She co-produced Sin Fronteras with Beau Bledsoe, founder/director of classical chamber Ensemble Iberica. The 10-song album features 25 musicians, including Latin Grammy winners Texmaniacs, Ensemble Iberica, and western band Slim Hanson and the Poor Choices. Though this community spans different genres, generations, and cultures, it coalesced around an album of original and traditional songs that meld influences from both sides of the border.
“The parallels between the music on both sides of the border became obvious to me years ago—you can see that in the traditions of cowboys in the U.S. and Mexico,” says Beau, who grew up in Arkansas but spent summers in the early 1990s studying ranchera in a tiny town in Mexico near KCMO.
Mireya might be best known for her pioneering work with her two-time Latin Grammy-winning group Flor de Toloache, and her acclaimed solo career. Flor de Toloache has toured nationally and internationally, and performed on NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert,” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and BBC 2’s Later with Jools Holland. The mariachi quartet has garnered critical-acclaim from Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ Magazine, and The New York Times.
Years of Collaboration
Mireya was born in California to proud Dominican and Mexican parents, and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her earliest connection to county music was through Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. When her family relocated from Puerto Rico to New York City, the Suzuki method, classically-trained violinist began to connect with bluegrass musicians and see firsthand the connections between the music of her Latin heritage and country music. Meeting Beau a decade ago and working with him for an internationally-themed seasonal performance series he curated in Kansas City only deepened the ranchera-country conversation for Mireya.
The shows documented a uniquely KCMO musical expression. Because of the city’s proximity to Interstate 35, a main tree branch for immigration to Mexico, Kansas City has had a long history of both traditional country and Latin music. “When I first moved here, I would study classical music at the conservatory, and play two-chord ranchera’s at night on the historic Southwest Blvd,” Beau recalls.
”["Regresa Ya"] probably has the longest geographical reach. There is slip note-style piano from Nashville in there, KCMO jazz, mariachi trumpet, a gospel choir—there’s a lot in the gumbo, but it came to the surface in a real natural way,
Beau Bledsoe
Album Highlights
Sin Fronteras is a passport to the special pan-cultural world KCMO audiences have been enjoying for years. Throughout the album, the musicians deftly blend ranchera and country, sprinkling in pop, jazz, and R&B along the way. The Sin Fronteras journey begins with the imaginatively-arranged composition, “Regresa Ya.” The song unfolds slowly and majestically with Mireya’s elegant vibrato singing and the brassy fanfare of ranchera horns. “That song probably has the longest geographical reach. There is slip note-style piano from Nashville in there, KCMO jazz, mariachi trumpet, a gospel choir—there’s a lot in the gumbo, but it came to the surface in a real natural way,” Beau says.
“Quiero Volver (feat Asdru + Flor de Toloache)” is a song Mireya wrote about personal heartbreak, and her powerhouse vocals here smolder with both contained rage and emotional rawness. “Ranchera has always been a form of therapy for me, and that’s why I wrote ‘Quiero Volver,’” she divulges. ““Quiero Volver” features standout trumpet playing from Ozomatli’s Asdru Sierra, and sumptuous guest vocals from her Flor bandmate Shae Fiol. Sin Fronteras concludes with a dreamy version of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” featuring genre-blending R&B/soul artist Calvin Arsenia, and Erykah Badu and Robert Glasper trumpeter Keyon Harrold. “As an Afro-Latina, I thought it would be interesting to flip things around with a song that’s typically performed as a white American country song by including Black American artists,” Mireya says.
Release & Tour
In the winter of 2024, Mireya Ramos, Los Texmaniacs, Slim Hanson, and the Poor Choices will form a singular touring ensemble performing the music of Sin Fronteras at historic dance halls and theaters throughout Texas, with additional dates in Merida, Mexico. Accompanying the tour will be a film crew and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Dan White to document the experience. The resulting film will include footage from interviews and live performances of Sin Fronteras, and frame the project within the larger narrative of the U.S. cowboy and Mexican charro. It will be released in September 2024 at various film festivals and theaters in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Sin Fronteras is an album about borders made by musicians without any borders. Rehearsals and recording sessions were freewheeling, fun, and serendipitous. Beau says: “There were a lot of happy accidents. The songs took on this Brian Wilson feel.” Mireya adds: “Everyone came with smiles and open hearts, and left a piece of them in this album. Listening back to Sin Fronteras my heart jumped out of my body from excitement. I can’t wait for people to hear it!”