Chalino Sánchez • El Pela Vacas

Discos Musart/Craft Recordings CR000887
140-gram LP
1995/2024

Music
Sound

by Guy Lemcoe | April 20, 2026

his is the third album I've reviewed from the late Mexican singer/songwriter Rosalino “Chalino” Sanchez. As with the others, Nieves de Enero and Alma Enamorada, Chalino Sánchez and the band of late accordionist Ignacio "Nacho" Hernandez, Los Amables del Norte, play rowdy, dance-hall polkas loud and fast -- songs in Northern Mexico’s norteño music genre known as narcocorrido (ballads telling of the exploits of drug traffickers). Born in 1960 in the coarse environs of Sinaloa in northwest Mexico, Sánchez fled to Tijuana at 15 after killing a man who had raped his sister. While there, he operated as a “coyote,” smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants across the border. This led to his arrest, after which he spent nearly a year in a Tijuana prison. In 1977, Sánchez left for the United States, where he eventually settled with his aunt in Inglewood, California. Four months after he was nearly assassinated, his body was discovered in a canal in Culiacán. His murder remains unsolved, and Chalino Sánchez has achieved legendary status.

“El Pela Vacas” (Cow Skin Peeler) is one of Sanchez’s nicknames. The songs here, often violent, graphic corridos, reflect the often oppressive, savage daily life of local residents and folklore heroes and villains of the time. With song titles such as “La muerte del Pela Vacas” (“The Death of Pela Vacas”), “Corrido del Gallito” (“Corridor of the Little Rooster”), Chico el Colorado” (“Chico the Redhead”), and “La muerte del Torito” (“The Death of the Bull”), you know you’re in for a trip to the dark side of a society where tough-as-nails hombres outsmart the police or enemies before eventually meeting their fate. Of the 15 songs on this release, Sánchez wrote 11, each demonstrating his genius for colorful and intriguing storytelling. Indeed, “Ya desputés de muerto” (“already after death”) seems to foreshadow Sanchez’s own murder. Among the other many highlights, “Tino Quintero,” a corrido by bandleader “Nacho” Hernandez, is a story about a local hero killed confronting armed perpetrators during a mass shooting at a dance in 1984. The music motivates listeners to lose their inhibitions and apply that energy to motion -- on the dance floor with feet, legs, hips and shoulders. To break a sweat and, perhaps, meet a new partner for the night is the goal, not contemplative shoe-gazing. I guarantee your head, fingers, and feet (or all three) will be moving as you listen to this LP.

First available on cassette over three decades ago (and later on vinyl), El Pela Vacas is now available once again on LP. This is a welcomed release; to the dismay of collectors and/or archivists, there are no cassette or vinyl pressings for sale on Discogs. (A seller in Texas is offering a sealed first pressing on eBay for $950.) Craft Recordings has given us a pristine, flat LP, sourced from the original analog master tapes with lacquers cut by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music. Each side of the LP is adorned with an accurate facsimile of the original Musart label. Though lacking finesse, the sound, not surprisingly, is up front, visceral and exciting.