Quality Americana

Star De Azlan captured the magic of the Texas Hill County with her latest single “Adios Cowboy.”

Martindale

Azlan was born in Martindale, a small river town that sits just outside of Lockhart.

“I started playing violin at a pretty young age, like around seven years old,” Azlan said. 

 She quickly joined the mariachi band while attending school in San Marcos, and that led to her desire to sing. Azlan was soon encouraged by her father to give it a shot.

“He was like ‘learn a couple songs and I’ll get you on stage,’” Azlan said. “He was kind of a cool dude like that, a go-getter.” 

Azlan soon started writing her own songs while in high school, and also formed a country group for local honky tonks. 

“Everytime I was in a mariachi band I was always like in a grade above,” Azlan said about performing with the high school and university ensembles. “I was one of the few professional mariachi players and singers around, so they kind of welcomed me everywhere.” 

Seeing how the crowd was moved by her first performances gave her the bug. 

“I just developed a love for music and really writing,” Azlan said. “It started with writing poems and expressing myself that way, in that type of language. I wanted to experience it a little further and I just decided ‘I want people to hear this.’ I was a teenager and I was going through break ups, and you know boys were a thing. I was expressing all of my feelings on paper, so I decided to put some music to it.”

Ace in the Hole

Azlan soon started performing with George Strait’s Ace in the Hole Band at the Cheatham Street Warehouse, and every weekend at the Market Square in San Antonio.

“They have this big festival every year called Fiesta,” Azlan said,” it’s huge. So many people from all around the world visit this market and I would sing country songs, mariachi songs, Selena songs… I’d do that every single weekend.”

Azlan was too young to perform at most venues, but found an audience at parties, birthdays, weddings and other family friendly events.

“I kept that gig at the Market Square and I played that religiously,” Azlan said. “One day there was someone in the audience who was kind of like a scout for management, and they saw me playing.” 

Azlan said there was a label seeking out Latin artists that could perform traditional styles and classic country, and eventually they formed a partnership that led to a record deal in Nashville. 

“The record deal was great,” Azlan said. “I released two songs that I wrote, ‘She’s Pretty’ and ‘Like a Rose.’ Mike Curb, the owner of the record label, literally came out of retirement to co-produce it and look over the project and everything, so that was pretty cool.”

Azlan said that there were so few artists performing between country and mariachi that there was little direction for the label to go off of.  

“I kind of started feeling like it wasn’t what I wanted,” Azlan said. “It wasn’t true to who I was as an artist anymore, and I kind of started veering away from that.”

“She’s Pretty” charted with Billboard on the Country Music Chart and Azlan was able to tour the U.S. and Europe. 

“I got to experience that side of things,” Azlan said. “I’m glad because I kind of get to compare it now to being an independent artist and knowing the ins and outs, and what I’m not missing I guess. Even though being an independent artist is pretty tough, and there’s a lot of things that go into it, at the end of the day it’s totally worth it because you get to put out your music how you want to and when you want to. You’re kind of your own boss and your own label in a sense.”

Adios Cowboy

Azlan wrote “Adios Cowboy” in a reflective period of time where she wanted to change things in her relationship. 

“The song is basically about a woman who feels like she’s taken the backseat in her relationship and her cowboy has put rodeo first in front of her, and this is her ballad about what she’s going through,” Azlan said. “I hope that other people can relate to that in their own relationship.” 

She worked at Arlyn Studio with producers Joseph Holguin And David Beck, who has experience blending genres with his honky tonk fusion group Tejano Weekend.

“I wanted to showcase my Texas roots, and how I grew up,” Azlan said. “I feel like he really helped me bring that to life in the song.”

There’s an all-star cast including Lloyd Maines on pedal steel and Nicholas Hamburg on lead guitar, Dee Stribling on Drums and Sean Rodriguez on bass.

“I think everybody that played on it was pretty proud of it,” Azlan said of her debut independent release that landed on the Texas Country Music charts. “The song is doing really good. We’re just doing as much promotion as we can, and pushing it the way we think it needs to be pushed.”

Finding an Audience

Even though Azlan doesn’t have the label support, the growth of online promotion and streaming has given her the tools to release “Adios Cowboy” around the world. 

“I still want to write music for anyone that will listen, and anyone that it will touch in any way,” Azlan said. “As a songwriter the best feeling is for someone to say that ‘hey your song really moved me and I could listen to this over and over again.’ I hope that it’s healing, or makes them happy, or helps them get through a sad time.”

Azlan has been performing around Texas as she works on her first independent album. 

“I’m so proud to be of Texas roots,” Azlan said. “We’re so blessed to be from a part of our state that is just gorgeous, where the culture is rich. You could hear music all day long if you wanted to.”

Support the Artist

More information about Star De Azlan can be found here.

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