Cabretta

It is 45 years ago when I first listened to a new band from NYC and it was the time before punk broke and the musical dinosaurs were going to leave. Mink De Ville were one of those acts that played steady in CBGB's among a lot of pioneers of the punk era. His debut Cabretta was on very heavy rotation at this time and I have to admit that from the first moment I listened to his songs I had a huge fondness to his music. The way he gambled with rock 'n' roll attitudes combined with a big latin flavor was the sound of this summer for me and this album was always a rock in my musical education.

During the years he turned more and more into New Orleans sound where he found his musical home. Blues music with swampy roots became his trademark. I saw him several times live and the last concert was close to his death in 2009. He was stamped by pancreatic cancer and walked on stage with a walking stick to sit on a barstool smoking lots of cigarettes during the gig. But I was impressed about his phsysical presence during the concert. He played a lot of songs from his musical career in a wise I never heard before and after. With his passing 13 years ago we lost one of the greatest underrated artists.