I love and appreciate music. I used to be a classic rock guy but my horizons have been expanded, and I mostly listen to contemporary music these days. I played guitar for a number of years and even led worship, but that was B.C. (before children). I was also a board member for a music foundation that built out and operates a venue for live music. I even booked the venue for about a year before COVID.
In the process of booking the music venue, I was constantly searching out new music. I focused on people writing and performing their own music. I looked for artists with a good enough following to fill a 200-seat venue but not so big that they were priced out of our range. I booked many, many acts, some of which have outgrown our space. At least one musician I booked went on to play for crowds of tens of thousands.
I tend to gravitate toward new folk, “new grass,” Americana, and indie rock, but I appreciate good music of all kinds. I go to live shows outside of my listening sweet spot to support young artists and appreciate their music. I like people who are not what I expect them to be, musicians who are authentic and who defy stereotypes. I also like a good story
All of these characteristics define a young group out of Monterrey, Mexico called “The Warning.” I will say now, “You have been warned!” which became their catchy promotional phrase when they were young – and not without reason. I can relate from experience that their rabbit hole is deep and winding!
The Warning is comprised of the three Villarreal Velez sisters who were raised by good parents who love music and introduced them to classical piano lessons, music of all genres, and Rock Band (the video game) when they were young. Daniela and Paulina began playing Rock Band when they were 8 and 6. They played it for hours and were driven to get perfect scores. Daniela (Dany) always played guitar and Paulina (Pau) insisted on the drums. Their little sister Alejandra (Ale) was “just a baby” (3) as she watched her older sisters play.
The girls became rockers and begged their father to buy them the real instruments they were playing on the video game. He obliged, signed them up for music lessons, and told them they had to give it at least 6 months. He had difficulty finding someone willing to give a 6-year-old drum lessons – a very small 6-year-old at that. The parents, Monica and Luis, captured their journey on video, part of which is the source material for a short documentary, Mayday in the Making, embedded below.
The girls took to that challenge their father gave them in the same way they were driven to achieve a perfect score in Rock Band. They shifted from piano lessons to guitar and drum lessons, and they practiced constantly.
Ale developed the same love of music as her older sisters, watching them play rock band and taking classical piano lessons herself. Though she was originally drawn to the harp, she fell in love with the bass guitar, and she began bass guitar lessons at 7 or 8 years old.
The sisters didn’t take long before they realized they could start playing music together, and they became a band. In fact, Ale had only been taking bass lessons for two months when they performed together for the first time in front of a live audience at a school Christmas celebration. Their father built them a state-of-the-art studio in the basement, which I imagine was half for sound containment and half to support his blossoming musical prodigies.
This may seem like an odd article on this website, but I do have a page devoted to music with perhaps a dozen articles I have written on music/faith themes. I have been inspired to write about the Warning, but I need to step up the stage first (pun intended) with an introductory article.
Continue reading “You Have Been Warned! (In the best way possible)”
Blind Willie Johnson had a profound influence on the world of music. Born in 1887, the son of a Texas sharecropper, his father got him a cigar box guitar at the age of 5. The guitar became his lifelong companion. He was blind by the age of 7. Reports differ on the cause. Perhaps, it’s true that his step-mother splashed water with lye in it on his face in a moment of anger. Whatever the cause, Blind Willie Johnson sang Gospel-infused blues, a craft he honed as a street musician and preacher.
Navigating by Faith 