Beto y Los Fairlanes

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Beto y Los Fairlanes, now known as Beto and the Fairlanes, is an Austin band that mixes worldbeat, latin pop, jazz and salsa. It started in the late 1970s by Robert “Beto” Skiles.

The group grew from the thriving 1970s Austin music scene and played at venues like the Armadillo World Headquarters, Liberty Lunch, and Soap Creek Saloon. They released their first album, Midnight Lunch, in 1978. Skiles, a San Antonio native, studied music at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Texas and was a well-known jazz pianist in Austin. He also worked with the Austin City Ballet and the UT dance department and has written four major orchestral works.

In 1980, the band appeared on the PBS show Austin City Limits. Skiles has explained that Beto blends his bilingual San Antonio roots with jazz and latin music to create energetic, improvised music that is both challenging and fun. The name came from a playful idea for a South Texas street band, and over time the music and the name stuck. The band continues to play mainly for fun, about one gig a month, treating performances like a family party with fans.

Original drummer John “Mambo” Treanor, who helped shape the group, died of cancer in 2001 at age 48. He also started the band 47 Times Its Own Weight and was known for hats and ties made from roadkill fur.

The band’s sixth album, Conga Dog, was released on January 6, 2006, and they also played at the Austin City Limits Music Festival that year. In 2012 they celebrated 35 years with a 35-day tour around Austin, playing many local venues. A live sampler from those shows, 35 DAZE, was released later. On September 15, 2013, they celebrated their 36th anniversary with a show at One World Theatre in Austin, where the sampler was released.