In this guest post, my friend Rob Freedman explains why Oaxaca, Mexico occupies a special place for Rush fans.
Some of the most evocative travel writing about Latin America comes from what has to be one of the most unlikely sources you could think of: Neil Peart of Rush. 
If you’re not a progressive metal fan you probably won’t be familiar with him or the band, (he’s the drummer and main lyricist, and the band in the 1970s broke into popular consciousness as something of the J.R.R. Tolkien of rock, a tag they’ve been trying to shed for decades).
In any case, in their almost 40 years of touring, they’ve done a monstrous amount of traveling and for the last 10 years Peart has become prolific in recounting tales of not just his time on the road with his band mates but from his personal travel—mainly by motorcycle.
Compelling Description. After reading his description of Oaxaca and his introduction to authentic mariachi music, it was hard not to call in sick from work that day and jump on a plane to experience it for myself.
“After a long, scary ride from Cuernavaca…we sat on the balcony of the El Asador Vasco restaurant, overlooking the tree-filled zocalo, the main square, with its ornate bandstand….[Travel companion] Brutus and I tucked into a soup of green corm with poblano chilis, while a trio of sad-faced guitarists began to strum from the back of the restaurant.”
But Peart doesn’t talk about the sad-faced mariachi musicians; instead he talks about the “exuberant” musicians who commandeered the street below the restaurant and how teams of mariachi bands competed with one another in virtuosity, musicianship, and, not incidentally, audience attention and “collections.”
“At first the whole Oaxacan zocalo scene was merely entertaining, a novel and picturesque mise-en-scene, but before long I found myself responding to the music, beginning to feel it like an electric tingling in my veins.”
Dueling in Wide Stereo. At one point, a pair of trumpeters played a duet in which they answered each other’s phrases in a kind of musical call-and-response exercise. “During one slow passage they moved wide apart on the street, like gunfighters, then played an alternating duet of sweet melodies in this ‘wide stereo,’ as if dueling.”
I still haven’t gotten to Oaxaca, but it remains high on my list. Peart’s recounting of his travels there and in other parts of Mexico are in Traveling Music (ECW Press: 2004). http://www.ecwpress.com/books/traveling_music
He also recounts travels to Mexico in parts of his book Ghost Rider, also from ECW Press.
on Mar 18th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I was afraid to read this– afraid that Rush referred to Rush Limbaugh, in which case my vision of Oaxaca was going to be destroyed forever. I can now breathe easily again. ;0
on Mar 19th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Your comment makes feel nostalgic for the days when someone would say “Rush” and everyone would know you were talking about a rock band from Canada.
on Mar 19th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Words from a Rush artist that aren’t crushed under grinding electronica? Dish me up some more of that!
on Mar 19th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@Myron I too, like my Rush unadulterated.