This is a very eclectic CD drawing from many different styles and featuring some the best area musicians and the tracks go like this:

KATHERINA, the opener is a rocker with some Rod Stewart and Rolling Stones vibes throughout. this one features a great supporting vocal by Leslie Perdue.

GOTTA MOVE a Latin-jazzy kind of groove with Charles on Percussion and my Schecter guitar straight in sounded cool. Charles played bongos.

The next three songs, CUBAN LADIES, ISLAND PARADISE, and NEVER HAD IT BETTER feature Crook Stewart III and Don Underwood (RIP) as Texas Donny Cuatro which is the name he used while in The Tony Vegas Group lineup. These rhythm tracks were recorded live at the Ghetto Palace on a plain stereo mix.

The title song CUBAN LADIES and ISLAND PARADISE these are ¨Cubanesque¨ or trop rock, as they say. Cuban Ladies has a Beny Moré bass line from songs I heard in Cuba in the mid 1950s and Island paradise has a cool Montuno bass line.

NEVERr HAD IT BETTER (Charles on bongos) and MARY are just clever pop songs . Mary is all AM rock with a cool Beatlesqe descending minor line played on a Beatle sounding Yamaha big body electric guitar that hangs on the studio wall - we call that guitar George. We plugged it in direct and sounded perfect!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY is (well you guessed it) a birthday song to sing along and clap your hands... A familiar type intro and progression makes easily identifiable and the chorus is HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

LIFE'S A GAMBLE was recorded live in the studio - one guitar track, one bass track, one vocal track and drums nothing more and it's pretty much how the band sounds live at gigs. Pierre has a hipnotic bass line and Charles really banged the snare on it....very cool.

THE RUMBLRES - Crook Stewart III played drums on this rocker about a mythical rock guitar trio playing playing a club in "that other part of town"..........."Once in a while they got crazy" we did not clean up the extra sounds at the end like we normally would just so we can hear Crook laughing at the end. This song was originally written as PLUTONIAN DIPLOMATS a musical nightmare of alien visitors that wanted to hijack my pick up truck.....but that changed.

BRING ON THE FUNK - This song has Charles doing cool drum funk stuff while keeping the groove solid and danceable. This is a guitar instrumental (again my Schecter) with sparse choruses and a cool scream by Killer Kris Kelly. This was originally titled HI HEELS.

LOVE YOU IN MY SOUL - An inspired love song of sorts with Charles on bongos and cool guitar stuff in a sexy minor key.

BLUE JEAN BABY - So, did you ever see a drop dead gorgeous blonde with blue eyes and tight jeans sitting at a bar somewhere not knowing she's super hot? Ha!, here she is. This is a just a fun song with some cliché vocals and fun riffs throughout.

The next four songs are in Spanish and my first Spanish recordings. I chose two Cuban Classics and two self penned entries into the Spanish Blues realm.

SABOR A MI - A great song from my Cuban past. This one predates me and it's a cool love song from the late forties early fifties in Cuba. This is the only song on this CD with horn parts and much orchestration and movement. I used my Schecter straight into the board and riffed. I've been playing this song for decades.

EL PUÑAL - This one was on my first CD as THE KNIFE and I translated it into Spanish and in Spanish it's The Dagger....way cool! A lost love or divorce type tune in A minor......no quite the world's saddest key but close.

NOSOTROS - A Cuban classic. Again this is a song I've played for years and it's the quintessential Cuban love song. Andy (the masterful) Haley played drums on this and was mostly recorded at Word of Mouth studios in New Orleans years back when I recorded my second CD CAJUN LADIES. Charles added bongos and I played a metal pipe that Tom Hoots keeps in the studio....The electric guitar used on this track is a double cutaway Fender Telecaster with P-90s and sounds sweeeet!

CONTENTO CON LOS BLUES - This one features Dr. Michael Hanson (as Dr. Bangwell) on drums and it's a kicking little blues rocker in Spanish with hand claps and cowbell....Translates to Happy with the Blues. it rocks along well.

WHY DID YOU SAY YOUOVED ME? - A very Latin minor mood is set with my Carvin electric acoustic, some cool chords, and an electric guitar ending. Tom had me add bass drum and snare to this groove so listen for the gated snare on the back end.

VARIATIONS ON KIRK'S RIFF - I was fortunate to play with Kirk Joseph for a couple of years in New Orleans and got to play Jazzfest with him in 2008 and 2009 as well as quite a few other club gigs. Kirk is the undisputed master of Souzafunk - yeah you right! This is a loosely interpreted guitar version of one of his riffs - some may call it jazz but I was rocking throughout.