A little video I took with my iPhone.

With the Arizona controversy in full swing here in the U.S. I have been posed the question of whether I will be canceling my upcoming scheduled concert in Tucson or going ahead and following through with the performance. My answer?

Although I am 100% against the immigration bill that was signed into law by Arizona’s governor, I will not let that stop me from performing for my fans in Tucson. My fans are not the ones responsible for the passing of this law and therefore should not have to be the ones to lose out.

Now, if the gig had me performing for the Governor’s Ball or a State Senate dinner, my decision would be different.

I fully support the boycott against Arizona. I whole-heartedly support the city of Tucson in the lawsuit they have pending against the state.

The people of Tucson are on our side. Now, let me get out there and rock Tucson!

-Luis Villegas

I’ve been ramping up the number of hours spent in the studio lately to try and make the deadline for the release of the new CD.  We are slightly behind schedule as it is but we are really giving it our all to get you this new music on time.

To keep you in the loop, we will be broadcasting some recording sessions via Ustream.com so you can get a sense of what a typical day in studio is like and get previews of some of the new songs as they are being recorded.  We will also be archiving these broadcasts on my Ustream page so you can go back to them at any time for your viewing pleasure.

In the meantime, here is a video recorded at the studio just the other day of me working on a song called “Tres Guitarras”.  Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all soon!

-Luis

Luis Villegas, Jake Shimabukuru and Ralph Farris of Ethel

Last week I had the opportunity to perform for one of the coolest conferences ever! The TED conference! TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. I’ll have a link to the TED website below but here’s a sample of the very eclectic group of people that are invited to speak at this conference: Bill Gates, Al Gore, David Byrne, JJ Abrams, Malcolm Gladwell, Jane Goodall, Bono, and Stephen Hawking to name a few. Basically, individuals at the forefront of their respective fields speaking on topics ranging from technology, to business to global issues, etc.

I performed for them along with my friend Ray Yslas and were joined by the likes of Natalie Merchant, L.A. Philharmonic violinist, Robert Gupta, the Ethel String Quartet, ukuleleist Jake Shimabukuru, music composer Carter Burwell and others. It was an honor to play with such awesome musicians!!

Go check TED out at the TED website.

Yesterday I went into the studio with my good friend and pianist Carlos Rodriguez (Juan Gabriel, Antonio Carmona, Juanes). He laid down tracks to two of my songs. He sounded amazing and we had such a great time! As we recorded we let the camera roll capturing his genius. We streamed it live and also recorded it. Here is a video of part of the day. Comment if you like what you hear!