The chicano reggae band Border Roots plays Music Under the Stars this Sunday (Aug. 2). Border Roots will be selling copies of its debut CD — "Reggae del Barrio" — at the Chamizal. This is not the official release of their album but is the first time the CD will be available for sale. "Reggae del Barrio" features seven songs: six originals and a cover of William DeVaughn’s classic urban lament “Be Thankful for What You Got.” For Mark Alvarado—the band’s lead singer and driving force—the recording and sale of the CD has been a project twenty-two years in the making.

Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
Gangsta whitewalls, TV antennas in the back

Mark Alvarado got his start in music fronting a reggae band called Soul Force in Santa Barbara, Calif. The band formed in 1989.

By 1993, Soul Force had taken over a coveted and regular Tuesday night gig at the Beach Shack. The reggae band earned the gig the hard way. The band that had the Beach Shack gig before them had such a stranglehold on the nightlife in Santa Barbara that the LA Times reported that all the other bars in Santa Barbara “conceded Tuesday night…scheduling karaoke, bands with no fans, or nothing at all.”

One of those bands with no fans was Soul Force, playing down the street at the Safari. But a funny thing happened at the Safari. Soul Force’s brand of chicano reggae started drawing more fans than the incumbents at the Beach Shack. So the owners at the Beach Shack made a change. The band’s lead singer told the Times, “Things are just happening really fast for us now.”

The music scene in Santa Barbara was electric then. Local bands Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dishwalla and Ugly Kid Joe got signed to record deals at major labels. And the record labels were still looking for talent in the area. A four-song demo that Soul Force cut earned them an audition for eight record executives in Hollywood.

That’s when the band fell apart. Soul Force, Mark Alvarado remembers, “was a band. All for one, one for all. We lived together. It was one of those situations, you know what I mean? Most bands do a good three-, four-year stretch and then they start to figure either they’re gonna go to the next level or they break up. And that’s what happened to us. There has to be like one person that says, ‘This is what we’re doing and if you’re not gonna do it then I’m gonna get someone else to do it.’ And I didn’t have the experience, or the understanding of that, at that time. So, we took a vote.” The band voted not to accept the audition at the record label. Mark was on the losing end of the vote.

You may not have a car at all

When the band broke up, Mark put his guitar down for awhile. He had started college but never finished. He was tired of the L.A. scene, he had family in El Paso—and somehow he wanted to re-invent himself. So he moved to El Paso. He’d finish his degree at UTEP. Roots reggae, the style of music that Mark favors, is a political music. Its most famous practitioners from the '60s—the trinity of Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh—write songs about poverty and the need to reform political systems to benefit the people they govern. But it’s not angry music. It’s real human music. Human music about healing. Being whole. And, you can dance to it. That’s the kind of stuff that resonates with Mark and Border Roots.

So at UTEP it’s natural that Mark turned his academic attention to Chicano and border studies. He dove in. “I took more classes than I needed for my degree plan because I just took every class that was associated with the border. Because I wanted to learn so much.”

It took a friend, Andres Muro, to get Mark playing in public again. Andres was helping organize a benefit for the Bridge Center for Contemporary Art in 1998 and knew that Mark played guitar. “I said, ‘You know I’m not really a solo artist, I don’t really have a band and I don’t really want to get up there and just tinker around on the guitar.’ So I knew some of the guys that played music and I asked them if they would help me develop a set for this fundraiser and we did it and the next thing you know I’m being asked to play at Music Under the Stars six months later. Yeah! It’s a true story.

“And I had to put a band together, a full band with drums and keyboards and all that to really get the reggae sound I wanted. And it’s just been built upon that. I think because of the fact that it was something new to El Paso in terms of this Chicano roots thing. And we really think—and I can say this honestly—we really think we broke the yolk for like La Chusma and Mexicans at Night and a lot of this undercurrent that you’re seeing as being acceptable forms of popular music in El Paso. You know, being from El Paso, it’s really like a heavy metal town, you know, [the music] not really embracing the cultural side of things a lot of times. And I think, musically, we really kinda believe that we kinda broke the yolk when we did that back in 2000. What’s happened now is other guys have left and they’ve spun off and La Chusma and these things and it’s great. But you know I have to continue, you know I still have to move and the flag is still hoisted, you know, I still have to go and Mark has to do his thing.”

But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall

Those guys played the fundraiser and their 2000 Music Under the Stars gig with the name Border Roots. Mark has been performing under that name since then with a revolving line-up of musicians. These days the band features a core line-up of Rich Rodriguez on bass, Louie Speaking Eagle on drums, Adrian Esparza on lead guitar and Dan Marquez on percussion and vocals.

The new album and the band’s second Music Under the Stars gig are special occasions. “[Music Under the Stars] is something that is a landmark event in El Paso. So you really have to bring the goods. So when I had the opportunity—because they book these things a year in advance—I called Martie Olivas and I called Billy Townes. And I said, ‘You know what, you guys are the cats in town. And I got a good rhythm section, bass and drum. I’ll hold down the roots reggae skank but I need you guys to come and color it up with what you guys do.’” On Sunday night, and on the album, the band rounds out with Billy Townes on keyboards, Marty Olivas on trumpet and Al Mendez on saxophone.

Just be thankful for what you got.
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin' the scene with a gangsta lean

Weather reports indicate that temperatures will be cooler this Sunday than in recent days. The Chamizal should be beautiful. Bring dancing shoes or bare feet. Leave your pets and glass bottles at home.

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Johnny Byrd lives in El Paso and works for his parents at Cinco Puntos Press.