Combining delectable danceable compositions, provocative cinnamon-on-honey vocals, and pulse thumping hip motivating bass playing, Cenobio Xavier “Bubba” Hernandez boldly defined his sound as a member of the two-time Grammy Award-winning polka rock band, Brave Combo. Today, he uses those same talents to delve further into the world of music and continues creating fresh, fiery new blends of music.
His second solo album, Dancing En Fuego (Moon Zero Bird Records, 2008), continues the evolution of his musical journey. While his first solo disc, the Grammy-nominated Polka Freak Out: Bubba Hernandez and Alex Meixner, melded eastern European accordion with a Tex-Mex rhythm section, Dancing En Fuego sees Hernandez diving head-first into his Latin roots. The result is a dazzling, dizzying kaleidoscope of sounds that never rests and never fails to excite the senses. The album’s subtitle says it all: Fiery Bilingual Cumbia-based Latin Pop Rock songs of Intrigue, Naughtiness, Heartbreak and Other Steamy Delights.
“I felt cumbia and funk would be a nice mix,” Hernandez explains. “So, when I asked [LA session drummer] Willie Ornelas to play, he said, ‘I don’t play cumbias.’ And I said, ‘Perfect, you play funk and we’ll put the cumbia on top of you.’”
The result is an album that bends genres and effortlessly joins variety traditional Latin styles with rockin’ guitars, funky drumming, pumping bass and even a touch of lounge.
It’s a natural progression for a musician who earned his reputation as part of a band that reinvented familiar songs by stirring together disparate (and often obsolete) influences to create something entirely unexpected – but completely danceable.
Away from the shadow of his former band, Hernandez has stretched his considerable talents to embrace both his past and the future. A fourth-generation musician, he allows himself to indulge his Hispanic heritage on Dancing En Fuego while at the same time building a cultural bridge the only way he knows how: by infusing irresistible rhythms with his seductive and inimitable voice. Performing live as Bubba Hernandez y Los Super Vatos, he is breaking down musical barriers one show at a time.
“Throughout my career, I’d be told, ‘I love your music, but what are you singing about?’” he says. “So, for this album, I decided to mix and match English and Spanish – and at times even Spanglish – so that, for the most part, people on either side of the language barrier would understand what the song was about.”
With the barriers removed, Hernandez shines on his latest effort. But given his impressive credentials, which include compositions featured in radio, television and film and covers all genres, it comes as little surprise. Twenty years of touring internationally, an appearance on “The Simpsons,” inclusion of his music in an Oscar-winning documentary as well as such movies as Fools Rush In and The Lord of Illusions have brought Bubba Hernandez to the place where many aspire to be: at the top of his game, and ready to play.
What the critics are saying:
“Famed and awarded for decades spent with the band Brave Combo, Bubba is a cornucopia of various music styles, and continues to blend these styles, and languages, into his solo albums.”
-Adrian Fallwell, NONzine
“Although not an original member of Brave Combo, Hernandez helped define the band's best work. He was not only a rock-solid bassist and a key songwriting contributor, he was also their most soulful vocalist.”
-Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Current
“What Dancing en Fuego delivers is Hernandez’s solid vocals. He’s especially great on “Avisame,” arching from low growls to heart-wrenching, rock & roll-style howls with shocking ease.”
-Belinda Acosta, Austin Chronicle
“Hernandez lives to have fun, but En Fuego is the proof in the proverbial pudding-eating. Hernandez is a Grammy-level musician, and, boy, can he sing.”
-Lucinda Breeding, Denton Record Chronicle
"a sweet adaptable tenor than can break hearts"
- John Morthland, No Depression
“Dancing En Fuego is a high-energy, joyful-sounding blend… intricately carved, cool rhythms… big, satisfying sound.”
- Tom Geddie, Buddy Magazine
