I love the squeezebox, whether it is an accordion, bandoneon, concertina, or some other type, and whether the context is jazz, roots, tango or boeremusiek. It always resonates with me.
Just a few weeks ago I posted a Ry Cooder track. And Flaco Jiménez – who passed away a fortnight ago – was one of Cooder’s primary collaborators over many decades, and was the best known of all proponents of Tex-Mex button accordion players. In conjunto or norteño, country or rock, Jiménez added his signature flair to everything he played on. And in the early 90s, he collaborated with a number of musicians traversing crossover styles on an album called Partners.
Fittingly, the opening track was a partnership between himself and Stephen Stills, who had penned one of his biggest hits, Change Partners, for his second solo album. On Partners the album, Stills and Flaco join forces for a version of Change Partners – this week’s song.
Stills’ warm acoustic timbre and open chords, Al Perkins’ pedal steel, and the tight rhythm section of Lee Sklar on bass and Willie Ornelas on drums are enlivened by the bounce of Jiménez’s fluttering accordion, on which he plays fills between vocal lines, accompaniment and takes short solo turns too. It’s all so very uplifting! He adds fun to the rhythmic change of the chorus, darting this way then that behind the backing voices of among others, Emmylou Harris and Dwight Yoakam.
I’m sure you all know the song; it’s about the romantic discourse of new relationships reflected through the (now outdated) notion of a dance card in a ballroom. Hope you like this version, which turns Stills’ contemplative recording into the dance of the original.
We’ll miss Flaco, whether playing solo or guesting with Los Lobos, the Stones, Cooder, Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Santana or in his bands Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados.
I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. You’ll read it here on a Sunday. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.
Listen to Change Partners on Spotify here and Apple Music here.
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One of my favourite tracks of Stephen Stills
It’s a great version isn’t it!?