''Tribe of Gypsies'' is the debut album by San Fernando Valley,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

-based

Latin rock Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...

band

Tribe of Gypsies Tribe of Gypsies are a San Fernando Valley, California-based Latin rock group, best known for band leader/guitarist Roy Z who has produced, written for, and played with such well-known artists as Judas Priest, Rob Halford, Sepultura and Bruc ...

. It was initially recorded for German indie label Dream Circle Records, then bought out by major

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

after the band landed a management deal with Sanctuary's

Rod Smallwood Roderick Charles Smallwood (born 17 February 1950) is an English music manager, best known as the co-manager of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. With his business partner, Andy Taylor, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, C ...

after being introduced by

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Eventually, the band got dropped by Mercury after a regime change at the company without the album ever seeing the light of day before a licensing deal was struck with Japan's JVC/

Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Ente ...

who finally released ''Tribe Of Gypsies'' in 1996. Album Cover by

John Kosh John Kosh, known simply as Kosh, is an English art director, album cover designer, graphic artist, and documentary producer/director. He was born in London, England and rose to prominence in the mid-1960s while designing for the Royal Ballet a ...

Notable guest musicians on the album include legendary harmonica player

Lee Oskar Lee Oskar (born 24 March 1948) is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock-funk fusion group War, which was formed by Howard E. Scott and Harold Brown, his solo work, and as a harmonica manufacturer. H ...

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

fame, current

drummer Sal Rodriguez, former Santana keyboardist Richard Baker, future

Queensrÿche Queensrÿche is an American heavy metal band. It formed in 1982 in Bellevue, Washington, out of the local band the Mob. The band has released 16 studio albums, one EP, and several DVDs, and continues to tour and record. The original lineup ...

guitarist Mike Stone, and Dee Dee Bellson, daughter of drum icon Louie Bellson. A promotional video for the song
We All Bleed Red
' was shot at the band's first and to this date only European show at the Borderline club in London, UK while the members of Tribe Of Gypsies recorded the '' Balls To Picasso'' album with Bruce Dickinson in the fall of 1993.

Track listing

#En Mi Barrio (3:03) #In The Middle (4:52) #Death Song (5:46) #Guajira (4:40) #Walking On The Water (5:17) #Mero Mero Mambo (2:45) #Party (Eddie's Thumb) (4:13) #Fire Dance (5:31) #Thinking Of You (6:18) #We All Bleed Red (7:07) #Crazy Love (4:25) #I'm So Close (5:51) #Conjuring Of The Soul (1:49)

Notes

Musicians *Dean Ortega - lead vocals, acoustic guitar,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

*Roy Z -

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and acoustic guitars,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

, percussion *Edward Casillas - bass, backing vocals, percussion *Mario Aguilar -

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

, percussion *David Ingraham - drums, percussion Guest Musicians *Doug Van Booven - congas, backing vocals, percussion *Dee Dee Bellson: backing vocals on ''Fire Dance'' *Lee Oskar: harmonica on ''In The Middle'' *Ray Rodriguez, Greg Shultz, Mike Baum, Richard Baker, John Nunn : additional keyboards *Sal Rodriguez, Mario Quiroga, Chino Rodriguez, Linda Bahia, Mike Stone : additional background vocals Production Credits Produced by Roy Z
Co-produced by Shay Baby & Tribe of Gypsies
Engineered by Joe Floyd, Sean Kenesie, Shay Baby, Bill Cooper
Assistant Engineers: Matt Westfield, John Boutin, Eric Greedy
Mixed at A&M Studios, Los Angeles by Joe Barresi, assisted by Chad Bamford
Recorded at Silver Cloud, Burbank, CA; American Recording, Woodland Hills, CA; Goodnight L.A., Van Nuys, CA.

Sources

TribeOfGypsies.com discography
{{Authority control 1996 debut albums Tribe of Gypsies albums Victor Entertainment albums