Don Santiago Jiménez, Sr.

Don Santiago Jimenez, Sr. was the visionary member of an accordion-crazy family. He has received practically all the credit for mixing the ranchera songs of Northern Mexico with a snappy German polka beat and accordion styles. His father, Patricio, had been an in-demand accordion performer around the turn of the century in southern Texas. And Don Santiago's two sons have made grand names for themselves as accordion players: Flaco Jimenez as a leading firebrand of norteño or conjunto music and Santiago Jr. carrying on with the more traditional sounds of his father. Tracing the ...