Before San Antonio record maven Huey Meaux rediscovered Freddy Fender and made him an international recording star behind the strength of “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” Fender was a tireless young guitar playing singer plying the Tex-Mex Honky-Tonk circuit under the name Baldemar Huerta. The sides assembled on Interpreta el Rock! represent a lost chapter in the history of popular music in Texas when rock, soul, country, and Mexican folk were being fused and reimagined by a group of ambitious young musicians who never exhibited cultural prejudices when it came time to finding a groove. Texas acts like Sunny & The Sunliners, the Latin Breed, the Sir Douglas Quintet and others would latch onto the simple but infectious sound that Freddy Fender pioneered on these recordings, which include spirited, Latin-inflected covers of standards like “Si Si Rider.” Interpreta el Rock is far more than a fascinating historical document, it is a vital set of stone-cold Tejano groovers and the first fruits of one of the greatest careers in Texas music.