NED SUBLETTE

...and now for something completely different!

Ned Sublette is someone who's been around the New York music scene since the late 70's, as a musician, author, music label owner, etc.   

As a performer, Sublette is probably best known for playing his own, mash-up style of fusing country and western swing with Afro-Caribbean rhythms & styles including salsa, cumbia and rumba, as reflected on the classic album Cowboy Rumba (Palm, 1999), as well as his 2012 second album Kiss You Down South.  I'm surprised nobody else has done this or tried this style of fusion.  I mean the closest thing we have to country and latin music is Tex-Mex, but it's still completely leaning in the country corner with just a little latin spice thrown in the mix.  Ned Sublette however does the reverse mix of Latin music with a little southern comfort mixed in for flavor.  The idea of adding percussion and Afro-Caribbean rhythmic elements to country music seems like a natural progression. Especially in this age of the popularity of the art form known as the mash-up, but it seems to have gone over most people's heads. 

For instance take a listen to an entirely different take on "Ghost Riders in the Sky"      He is also a leading scholar of Cuban music.  His label Qbadisc releases Cuban music in the United States and he has released music by Latin musicians including Ritmo Oriental and Issac Delgado and has co-produced Public Radio International's "Afropop Worldwide" show. 

 For you history buffs, he's also the author of “Cuba and its Music” and “The World that Made New Orleans” and more interesting titles 

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square

The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry

Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo

The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans

Ned Sublette ‎– Cowboy Rumba

Palm Pictures ‎– PALMCD 2020-2

Released:  1999

Genre:  Latin

Style:  Salsa, Merengue, Rumba, Son

Tracklist

1.  Ghost Riders In The Sky

2.  Cheaters' Motel

3.  Feelin' No Pain

    Featuring – NG La Banda

4.  That Sad Love Song

5.  Her Point Of View

6.  Ready To Be

7.  Something To Lose

    Featuring – Lloyd Maines, Yomo Toro

8.  Not Fade Away

    Featuring – Los Muñequitos De Matanzas

9.  Que Electricidad

    Featuring – NG La Banda

10.  Cowboy Rumba