Vikki Carr going strong
Nice article, with some insight to her career:Vikki Carr was not thinking of the headlines she would generate or the history she would make that day in Vegas nearly 30 years ago.
She just wanted to sing a little lullaby her father used to sing to her as a child.
But to do the song justice, she needed the cultural accent that a mariachi band would lend.
So she invited Pedro Hernandez and his mariachi to perform with her at the Riviera Hotel.
“And the curtains opened on this little upper stage and it was Pedro, and he came out and performed,” she recalled.
The next day, the Vegas Strip was buzzing with news of Carr and the mariachi.
“That was the first time anyone had brought along a mariachi group,” Carr said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Next Friday, Carr will share the Centennial Hall stage with Hernandez’s little brother José and his Mariachi Sol de México.
[…]
…Her role in introducing mariachi to audiences outside of Mexican restaurants is part of a legacy that also included one of the first openly public battles against smoking.In 1974, suffering from congestion and all its related ills caused by secondhand smoke, Carr did something no one had the guts to do: She asked a casino audience in Las Vegas to put its cigarettes away while she performed.
[…]
Here’s a teaser for the upcoming concert:
And here’s an oldie. No mariachis, but it’s one of my favorite songs.