Sin Fronteras

Two-time Latin Grammy award-winner Mireya Ramos has released her second album, Sin Fronteras, co-produced with Beau Bledsoe, founder/director of chamber orchestra Ensemble Ibérica. Born in California to Mexican and Dominican parents, Ramos is now based in NYC where she founded its first all-women mariachi band, Flor de Toloache. Now, in Sin Fronteras, she collaborates with a line-up of 25 musicians, including the Ensemble Ibérica, Texmaniacs and Slim Hanson & The Poor Choices. The album’s ten tracks offer a rich blend of ranchera, pop, jazz and R&B, which as Ramos puts it, “showcases the similarities between styles of music and traditions that on the surface may seem very different.”

To some, ranchera horns alongside country slide guitar riffs might jar at first, but somehow, they do blend happily. Some tracks, such as the remakes of classics ‘Blue Bayou (feat Trevor Turla & The Burney Sisters)’ and ‘I Fall to Pieces (feat Keyon Harrold & Calvin Arsenia)’ have a nostalgic feel, but with their own fresh authenticity. Multi-instrumentalist Ramos impresses too with her vocal range, sometimes soft and lilting, at other moments with a raunchy edge, providing great contrast with Slim Hanson’s gravelly drawl on ‘King Nothing (feat Texmaniacs)’ and ‘There Stands the Glass (feat Texmaniacs)’. All in all, a gem of an album; borderless indeed, but full of harmonious heart and soul.