RockyPoint 360 is turning 3! To help celebrate, we’re happy to announce we’ll be welcoming singer/songwriter Alfonso Maya back to Puerto Peñasco for an evening of good music and good spirits at El Tapeo Wine Bar on Friday, Oct. 24th. The evening will start at 7:30 p.m. with the voice of local musician and event promoter Luis Lugo, cover 100 pesos.
Video: Alfonso Maya in Rocky Point 2013
In 2013 we were pleased to have Alfonso (Poncho “Borrego”) with us for a night of music in the Mirador, and can recall bringing Alfonso first to Puerto Peñasco in about 2003….well before Rocky Point 360 even began. This is a grand friendship that we’re pleased to share with our Rocky Point 360 public!
(Excerpt from our article about Poncho Maya from June, 2013)
We first crossed paths with Alfonso in Cuernavaca years ago, a guitar strapped to his back as he made his way from outdoor cafés in the bohemian Plazuela to neighborhood cultural festivals and into language schools where he performed for students immersed in Spanish courses. Maya’s curly locks pay a nod to his popular nickname “borrego” (sheep), while his melodious voice, accompanied by just his guitar, spins a trance over the audience as he works his way through songs off each of his four independently produced albums (Girando Acústico, 1999, Giros y Giros, 2001, Tarot, 2004, and Todo el Universo, 2012).
Though his music is still within what could be considered the “alternative, underground” music scene in Mexico, the number of followers of Maya’s melodies have grown over the years and someone recently reminded me he has become somewhat “famosón” (a little bit famous) in his own right. Still, Maya continues to travel simply with a guitar strapped to his back, on metros, buses, planes, and every now and then by catching a ride with a friend from one concert to another. With a musical career stretching over more than 15 years, Maya’s travels have taken him across Mexico as well as abroad, with presentations in different parts of the U.S. about two or three times a year. In addition to playing in spots in Spain and France, in 2006 Maya traveled to Kazakhstan for the IV International Contest of Kazakh Song where his song “Giros y Giros” was awarded the Best Song Arrangement of a Home Country (Best Foreign Song).
A concert with Alfonso Maya is a conversation with an artist and story-teller as he presents nearly each song with remarks about his inspiration, complemented by his keen sense of humor and a flirtatious sparkle in his eye. In a 2010 interview with the radio program Ambulante en Rock por Mexico, Maya stressed the importance of having “chemistry with the people, to think about the moment…what’s important is to write songs that are close to the people.”