No Me Quites Tu Amor

Album Review

José Eulogio Hernandez, aka El Potro de Sinaloa, has always focused on regional Mexican music, but like Ezequiel Peña, he is a Mexican singer who has refused to focus on one style of Mexican music exclusively. El Potro has recorded plenty of norteño, but he has also made his share of recordings that have favored what is perhaps best described as a very spare, minimalist blend of banda-style tuba and mariachi-style acoustic guitar (although many people associate mariachi with trumpets, the fact is that Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán were strictly guitar-based for decades and didn't add trumpets until the '40s). You know that a new El Potro album is going to be Mexican-oriented, but you never know what choice of instruments will prevail — and on No Me Quites Tu Amor (Don't Take Your Love from Me), the expressive singer divides his time between full-fledged banda and that minimalist tuba/acoustic guitar format. It is an interesting contrast; the first six tracks find him joined by a large band offering the big wall of brass that banda is known for, but after that, El Potro downsizes and lets an element of banda (the chugging tuba) and an element of mariachi (the acoustic guitar) help him get his emotional points across. Both formats serve him well, and the Sinaloa native is consistently pleasing whether he is making some Latin pop moves (Marco Antonio Solís' "O Me Voy o Te Vas," Joan Sebastían's "Quiereme" and Reyli Barba's "Desde Que Llegaste" are performed) or favoring a traditionally ranchera approach. But while El Potro isn't a regional Mexican purist, No Me Quites Tu Amor is ultimately more ranchera than pop — and "Las Higueras" shows how convincingly he can perform a corrido. Full-fledged banda or simply tuba/acoustic guitar, No Me Quites Tu Amor is a memorable offering from El Potro de Sinaloa.