Grammy-Winning artist enjoys a day in Northwest Houston - By Michael Sudhalter

March 23, 2011

Grammy Award-winning artist Rick Trevino had a busy day in Northwest Houston on Sunday.

Trevino,  who enjoyed seven Top 10 country hits between 1994 and 1997, served as the Grand Marshal for the 1960 St. Patrick’s Day Parade and later performed a benefit concert for the Cypress Creek EMS at Big Texas Dancehall & Saloon in Spring.

The Houston-born, Austin-raised singer proved that he isn’t resting on his laurels with the release of two albums on one disc last week, “In My Dreams” – which was recorded in 2003 but never released and “Whole Town Blue.”

He wrote all of the songs with the exception of the Bryan Adams cover,  “Have You Ever Loved A Woman”.

“I’m really proud of the music and proud that we got the album in our hands,” Trevino said. “It’s a combination of 7-8 years of songwriting and recording. I’m glad that it’s going to be available for fans to listen to.”

Trevino, 39, has a sound that’s more traditional than his mid-1990’s hits like “Doctor Time” and “Bobbie Ann Mason”, which reached No. 5 and No. 6 on the charts, respectively.

Even when he was registering hits in Nashville, Trevino was still living in Austin.

“It’s been quite a musical journey for the past 17-18 years,” Trevino said. “I really feel like this album represents where I am musically. In our sets, we’ve always played homage to those (traditional) artists.”

In concert,  Trevino mixes the old songs in with the new ones, but they definitely have a tinge of his current sound incorporated into them.

That wasn’t the case for a long time – Trevino went through a period after his No. 1 hit, “Running Out of Reasons to Run” in 1997, that he wouldn’t play the old stuff because he wanted to focus on his new music. (“Learning As You Go” went No. 2, and “She Can’t Say I Didn’t Cry” reached No. 3).

A year after scoring a No. 1 hit, Trevino joined the supergroup, Los Super Seven, with Los Lobos, Flaco Jimenez, Freddy Fender and others. They won a Grammy for the Best Mexican-American Music Performance in 1998 for the first of their three albums.

He recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, which was the signature song of Fender – one of Trevino’s musical heroes who passed away in 2006.

Trevino grew up listening to Country and Tejano, and he got involved in the local music scene while he was a student at Texas A&M.

Trevino recorded English and Spanish versions of his first hit, “Just Enough Rope”, and he still performs songs in both languages.

 “I’ve been really fortunate to have a Hispanic and Mexican fan base, especially in the Southwest United States,” Trevino said. “I’m not the first (country singer) to sing in Spanish…My dad was a Tejano musician – that’s who I am.”

Trevino has expanded his fan base internationally,  touring in both Canada and Mexico. He’s also been to Iraq to perform for the U.S. Troops.

When Trevino was a college student,  the Texas/Red Dirt Music scene was still a few years away from captivating  Lone Star State college towns, but he enjoys how that scene has evolved.

 “Any kind of format that encourages artistic freedom or singer-songwriting is very healthy,” Trevino said.