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Ersi Arvizu: Friend for Life

John Morthland, No Depression, 29 December 2008

ERSI ARVIZU is best-known for her stint with El Chicano, a jazz-inflected East Los Angeles rock band of the early 1970s, but she sang in several other Chicano soul groups both before and after that, and also worked as a boxing trainer who herself went 4-0 in the ring. She'd been out of music for more than three decades when Ry Cooder enlisted her for his 2005 album Chavez Ravine; Cooder also produced this rich, compelling album of autobiographical songs in Spanish and English.

Total word count of piece: 372

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