Strictly Tabu

The Carnivaleros' music has always been difficult to define - they combine moody Eastern European motifs, western movie themes with strains of Zydeco rhythms, Tex-Mex polkas, waltzes and swing to create a stew of Desert Bayou Music. They live up to the name with this year's release of 'Strictly Tabu'. Bandleader Gary Mackender has penned five instrumentals and six seductive tales of life in America for his fourth full length album. Mackender's lyrics deal with the human condition as he sees it; some light, some dark. The tales told on this latest project range from a story of the life of American folk artist Howard Finster, a lament about a deceased neighbor and friend who played the pedal steel, a supper club magician who's fate is sealed due to gambling debts and other shenanigans, and the tale of Arizona Sheriff Joe's rise to fame. The Carnivaleros children's choir is also resurrected on a song about the cult of tin foil hat wearers.