Green Card All Stars features the writing/producing and playing of Dennis Henderson and the writing, playing and vocals of Nicolas Vigil. These songs are all basically demos completed enough to the point where you can get the full impact of the artists vocal ability and writing style. Nic tends to handle the Latin flavored songs, and various other artists handle the vocals on other styles. Our goal is exposure for Dennis as a writer and for Nic as an artist, as Nic is the young good looking one and Dennis is old and past his stage prime. They are great friends and have played in many versions of GCAS together. They will continue to add songs to the playlist here.
BIO Nicolas Vigil
Nicolas Vigil grew up on an 8-acre rural spread in the western outskirts of Spokane, Washington. Born January 13th 1978, he is the youngest of 11 children in his immediate family.
From the time he was born, Nic was trained in fine art and commercial art under the mentorship of his father, as were his 10 brothers and sisters. His mother was a wonderful singer around the house and Nic grew up listening to everything from spiritual hymns to conjunto-style corridos at his father’s family reunions. To date, his music collection is a confusing mix of everything from Zapp to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ice Cube to Tchaikovsky, and of course Los Lobos & Santana.
Nic began to play the accordion at the age of 21. He found the instrument while cleaning out a basement closet on a fateful Friday night on which he chose to stay home. After so many cervezas, the reservation to try and play such an oddball instrument was totally absent. Fortunately, while cleaning he had the stereo blasting Los Lobos’ La Pistola and the accordion melodies of David Hidalgo were enough to inspire him to give it a shot. By Monday, he had learned by ear & memorized not only the melodies but the lyrics to 3 songs and his parents & relatives were astonished that he could, seemingly out of nowhere, play and sing such beautiful Spanish pieces after so many years of listening to rap and rock & roll.
Soon after learning to play and sing, Nic and his cousins & brother formed a family band called Los Vigiles. Nic also took up playing congas, timbales, and several other forms of Latin percussion as well as guitar and Cuban tres.
On a sunny day in September of 2000, Nic got the opportunity to sit in with the internationally loved, Grammy award winning band Ozomatli, at Bumbershoot, an arts & cultures festival in Seattle. Nic, along with his brother approached Ozomatli before the show to ask for an autograph, but upon seeing him wearing an accordion like a backpack, the members of Ozomatli asked Nic to play a tune for them. They were stunned when he began to play the melody to their song “La misma cancion” and invited him to sit in and jam with them in front of 15,000 people. After the performance, fans of the band also approached Nic for autographs & pictures like he was one of the cats. This quickly grew into a strong friendship with the members of Ozomatli as well as inspiration for Nic to branch out and explore his own musical desires. Nic began to gig and record with several local music acts around Spokane and eventually formed his own group, Milonga, a seven piece Latin roots band, playing everything from Son Jarocho to Afro-Cuban Jazz and of course, the accordion-led cumbias & rancheras he but in his musical teeth on. Milonga continues to dazzle regional audiences as the premier Latin act in the Inland Northwest.
Milonga is an all star lineup of players from diverse backgrounds musically and culturally. Nic writes and directs their original material in hopes of completing an album soon. Fans eagerly await the release of their self-produced debut album “En La Calle” due out for Cinco de Mayo 2005.
Nic is currently working as a commercial artist in the Spokane area while maintaining gigs and writing & recording with his band Milonga as well as a San Diego based side project called the Green Card All-Stars. Green Card fuses elements of popular styles like funk, jazz, disco, & rock with the Latin styles that Nic brings to the table to create a style all its own which has been dubbed “Barrio Jazz” the group currently has hits in the works with “Senor Horrible” and “Que Pasa”, where Nic lends his vocal talents as well as supportive musicianship under the guidance of producer & songwriter Dennis Henderson. Nic & Dennis’ collaboration has spawned interest from several record labels and film companies for soundtrack use. They hope to complete their album soon.