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.
But then there is also the chance that you will hear his album called "Juarez Murders," a sort of concept album, loosely based on the killings of several hundred women across the border from El Paso.
He says, "It has a number of 'borderesque' references, it is dark, and it came about after I saw the documentary (Senorita Extraviada/Missing Young Women) by Lourdes Portillo. We did some benefit shows for Amigos de las Mujeres, and donated some CDs for that." Amigos is a support group for the families of the victims of femicide.
Salcido had help on the album from Sheryl Crow's engineer, Jeff Trott, along with Lowery of Cracker fame. Resignedly, Salcido adds that the album is probably "too dark" to be any kind of a commercial success.
His first album was "Bug2000," which is a bit more of a rock-and-roll offering, is splendidly produced, and is effortless to listen to. "I made it in Portland (Ore.), and it took almost two years to do," he recalls.
Salcido worked on the album with a number of talented and experienced people who had worked with artists such as Tom Petty, Crow, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Some of the songs were inspired by local writers in Portland.
He followed a suggestion that he make "Bug2000" a numbered, limited edition, which turned out to be a good idea. A quick look at Amazon.com finds that the CD is now a collector's item and ranges in price from $27 to $70. It is a fine piece of work, and the backup work by members of various other bands of note gives it a unique quality and sound.
Salcido was also honored several years ago by Paul McCartney (yes, that Paul McCartney), when the former Beatle chose one of Salcido's compositions, "Everyone Needs Some Love Now," for a compilation album called "The Garland Appeal's Familiar Mysteries."
"It was all work by unsigned songwriters, and was for a charity (Garland Appeal) that McCartney started in honor of his late wife, Linda," Salcido explains. "Any money it makes is used to buy MRI machines for rural areas around the world. McCartney really believes in the healing power of music."
Salcido is slightly shy, but now he offers full eye contact and a fleeting smile when he says, "McCartney chose it because of it had 'Lennonesque' qualities" — in reference of course to the great John Lennon.
Salcido's current project, a compilation of music and poems in collaboration with poet Quincy Troupe, is now his all-consuming passion. The project, which will become both a CD and a DVD, has taken all of his time and energy."And money," he adds.
"This is a responsibility of a lifetime," Salcido says. Troupe, a prolific writer, has numerous published books of poetry, many of them utilizing his skill of "poems in jazz," and has written a biography about Miles Davis. He is also the winner of two American Book Awards, and his father played in the Negro baseball leagues of yore. Embroiled in controversy a few years ago after being named California's first poet laureate, when it was discovered he didn't actually have a college degree, Troupe has put that behind him and continues to be a strong voice in the world of poetry and literature. Troupe has been an influence on Salcido in many different ways. Salcido refers to him as "the black grandfather I never had. He has the same birthday as my paternal grandfather."
Salcido has had Troupe in the studio, where the poet gave him a new nickname, "Slavedriver," Salcido says with a hint of pride and humor.
"On some sleepless nights I would go through his poems, and one night he called me. 'How are you picking the poems?' he asked. I said, 'Oh, it's based on the number of teardrops on the page.'
"I'd do it all again," Salcido says. "He's been a most vibrant force." Salcido relates how Troupe and his work helped to give him the courage to contact his ex-wife. "I finally called her and said, 'Thank you for loving me enough to marry me, and I am sorry that I was not mature enough to be with you.' All of that came through Quincy."
Bugs Salcido has not made a fortune on his music, but that will never stop him from continuing to write, perform and play. Salcido says he is always writing, and has a future plan to make video blogs of poems. He is hoping for an endorsement from Troupe and to work with him on the project.
His latest collaboration is with the dance company Project in Motion, directed by Hilary McDaniel Douglas. “They do aerial dance—silk fabric hanging from the rafters,” Salcido says. “Think Cirque du Soleil. Pretty amazing stuff. We will be doing a tribute to Nick Drake as well as some of my songs. We start a Midwest tour that ends up in New York City in March.”
As for albums, Bugs adds, “I’ll sell some, there is stuff available on archive.org, but I believe that it is important just to share music.”
As Quincy Troupe says in one of his poems set to music, backed by Salcido and a local band, “Music is language. Music is everywhere, everywhere is music.”
You can hear several of Bugs Salcido's songs at www.myspace.com/bugssalcido or find out more about him and his travels at www.bugssalcido.com. When not on tour, he plays Saturday nights at Vintage Wine in Las Cruces.
Jeff Berg dabbles in writing in Las Cruces. He thanks
Patricia Gonzalez for the inspiration for this article.