Ranchera

Ranchera on vinyl: songs of love, home and farewell

In short: Ranchera is Mexico’s great song form: stories of love, home and farewell, sung with deep feeling and often backed by mariachi. Its roots are rural, cinema made it famous, and in northern Mexico and Texas accordion groups play it too. The Vinyl Room currently has 41 ranchera records.

What is ranchera?

The voices: Lucha Villa is here with “El Quelite”, “Los Discos De Oro” and an album of Juan Gabriel songs, plus Antonio Aguilar with “Volumen 5” and Magda Franco with “Cancion Del Alma”.

From Texas and the north: Ramiro Leija with “Todo Es Maravilloso”, Carlos Guzmán and Carlos Miranda with “Encuentro Musical”, Los Dos Gilbertos, Mingo Saldívar with his Conjunto 4 Espadas, plus Los Caminantes De Monterrey and Los Zorros Del Norte.

What to look for

Our ranchera records are mainly US editions, most of them from the seventies; label, catalogue number and year of release help you tell which edition you have – it’s noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

New in

→ Tejano · Mariachi · Conjunto · Latin on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is ranchera? Mexico’s great song form – sung with feeling, often with mariachi.

What are rancheras about? Love, home, pride and farewell.

Is mariachi always part of it? Often, but not always – in northern Mexico and Texas accordion groups play the songs too.

Which ranchera records do you have? Here, for example, Lucha Villa’s “El Quelite” and Ramiro Leija’s “Todo Es Maravilloso”.