D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2009
Bugs Is Back in Town
Itinerant musician Bugs Salcido, sometimes of Mesilla, has had a song recorded by Paul McCartney and musical connections ranging from Sheryl Crow to Pearl Jam.
By Jeff Berg
"Bugs." What an unusual nickname. But when one thinks of the number of noted musicians with unusual epithets — T-Bone Burnett, Fats Waller and Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Jellyroll Morton, Ringo. . . the list is endless — it fits right in. Talented musicians deserve good nicknames.
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"Bugs" Salcido. |
Mesilla musician "Bugs" Salcido is actually Daniel J. Salcido, a man who has made music his passion and life.
"I got the nickname is grade school, when some kids used to make fun of me before I had braces, saying I looked like Bugs Bunny," Salcido says. He kept the nickname over the years to show that it didn't affect his life after grade school.
"I've been blessed. I've not had to have a day job since 1988," he adds. But even that job was music related, since he was a cook at The Fillmore, the still-famous San Francisco venue where anyone who is anyone has played.
But Salcido has been around. Originally from California, he has spent time in many places, often jumping back and forth between California, mostly in the Bay Area, and New Mexico, where he came for the first time at age 12 from Redlands, Calif.
He is back again, ensconced in a chilly old adobe house that's in need of some utility access work, but that's only one block from the Mesilla Plaza, a favorite place.
"I can walk out my front door in the morning and watch the sunrise," he says as he points east toward the Organ Mountains, "or come out later at night and enjoy the quiet of the plaza after everyone has gone home.
"I can sit outside and listen to Beatle records," he goes on, citing an important influence on his own music. "I can walk around the neighborhood and take in all of the sweet smells. I can be a troubadour and walk down the streets playing Mexican-sounding music."
Salcido smiles. "And I can also open my front door and blast the whole neighborhood with reggae at 7 a.m."
Salcido's father was an accountant for NASA, now retired and living in southern New Mexico. His father has some health issues, which is why Bugs came back once again to the area last February.
"He bought me my first guitar when I was eight," Salcido recalls. "I was playing at El Patio (a popular Mesilla night spot) when I was 16, and playing with Johnny Rodriguez at the old Desert Sun."
He describes the instrument, one of many that he plays or dabbles with, as cheap ($8 maybe) and possibly even made of plastic, but it served as the early catalyst for his musical career. Later, however, his father also told Bugs not go into the music business, because it was filled with bad people.
"Twenty five years later I know he was right," Bugs says with another smile.
He learned his first chords from David Lowery, the co-founder of Cracker, a roots-rock band that's been popular since its debut in 1991, and a former neighbor of the Salcidos. "I've known him since the age of five."
Salcido continues to share the names of music-industry people whom he knows or has worked with — some household names, some not, many who should be.
There is Sheryl Crow, the popular singer/songwriter and past fiance of Lance Armstrong. Crow's music has taken a decided turn toward being more about social issues the last few years. Bugs has worked with her.
There is Pearl Jam, one of the most popular bands of the 1990s. Bugs has worked with them, too.
Victoria Williams, whose hit song "Crazy Mary" was also covered by Pearl Jam, is another one.
The Rembrandts, best known for the "I'll Be There for You" theme song of the hit sitcom "Friends," has also had Bugs as part of their entourage.
Then there's Americana music legend Joe Ely. Somewhere Salcido has a liner note with him.
The list is pretty much endless, and includes, in an unusual way, Paul McCartney. More on that later.
"I moved to Hollywood when I was 19, when an LA-based band asked me to come out," Salcido recounts. "Man, was I naive. I hadn't known anything about drugs and drinking, but that turned around quickly. I also really learned about the music business — " much more than he did while studying music at NMSU.
"The show must go on" was a big lesson. Salcido relates a slightly tawdry tale about not wanting to perform one night, until the bandleader, a "gentleman" named Spike, convinced him otherwise.
"Spike said, 'If you don't make the MF-ing gig tonight, you are out of the MF-ing band!'"
Bugs made the gig.
Not the type of personality to be harsh or demanding, Salcido nonetheless recently tried that same routine with a young local musician whom he was mentoring and helping to get a leg up on her career. A small gig had presented itself in which Bugs could perform with her on the popular KRWG-FM show, "The Back Porch."
She was starting to have second thoughts and, much to Salcido's surprise, was thinking about turning to competitive bicycle riding instead.
"I called her up and pretended I was Spike, and told her to be 'at the MF-ing show or else.' She never called back, and I had to do the show myself."
So much for the Spike technique.
"She was concentrating on being Lance (Armstrong) and not Etta (James)," Salcido goes on. "I see so many people with natural talent, and it is really hard to watch them squander that. It was also hard for me because I am very goal-oriented, and I was unable to reach the goal of performing with her on the radio."
This was also frustrating for Salcido in a different way: "I've had to work for my talent. It hasn't been natural for me to work on this, and it has been more about my heart than my ability."
One of Salcido's latest addresses in California, prior to his most recent New Mexico return, was near Joshua Tree National Monument, in the heart of the Mojave Desert. He lived at the old movie-ranch location of Pioneertown, whose original investors included Roy Rogers and Gene Autry; it's now a large historic community that embraces most things western. Within Pioneertown's friendly confines is a place known as Pappy and Harriet's, a combination eatery, music hall and saloon. Salcido became good friends with Pappy (aka Claude Allen), who himself was also a singer/songwriter and occasionally dabbled in acting in B movies.
"Pappy took me under his wing, and he taught me a lot," Salcido says.
One thing that Salcido took to heart, even though it has a comic edge to it, came after complaining to Pappy that he suffered from insomnia.
"'Bugs,' he says, 'a hard day's work and a clear conscience will clear that right up.'
"He was right."
Salcido's music is genuinely difficult to categorize. Most times he sticks with one of his 22 guitars, and creates an interesting and sometimes edgy blend of rock, jazz, folk, Americana, blues and a spot of country.