David Beck and Sunny Sauceda add Tejano style to ‘If We Make It Through December’ [VIDEO]

When he first fell in love with Tejano music two years ago, San Marcos native David Beck, a musician/singer/songwriter, heard it from the best.

Beck saw Selena’s last televised performance Feb. 26, 1995 at the Houston Astrodome where she donned her now-famous purple outfit and belted out hits from her “Amor Prohibido” album.

“The songs were so good,” Beck said. “The production was so good and everyone was playing their butts off.”

Forever changed, Beck, a folk-indie-country artist who doesn’t speak Spanish, consumed all music of the Tejano genre and then put pen to paper.

“I loved the music so much that I started writing tunes in that style,” Beck said.

Beck released his album of Tejano music in English, “David Beck’s Tejano Weekend,” in late September. The disc is an unusual concept, but it works. His mix of rancheras and cumbias, backed by an accordion and led by his gifted, melodic voice, makes you want to dance a cumbia despite the language.

Now, Beck has teamed with Tejano music’s 2019 Entertainer of the Year Sunny Sauceda for a Christmas duet, which is a remake of Merle Haggard’s “If We Make it Through December.”

The two met through mutual musician friends in the industry and Sauceda said they had something else in common, too.

“He’s doing something that Tejas Records wanted me to do about 20 years ago is do Tejano music in English,” Sauceda said. “And that’s exactly what David Beck is doing, which I find so intriguing. His voice is so unique. He sings really pretty.”

Sauceda, who is currently recording a single with producers in Mexico, said he was excited about recording in English with a Texas music artist like Beck, which is a first for Sauceda.

Sauceda said it was fund recording the Christmas due with Beck and thinks Beck can bring a new demographic of fans to Tejano music from Anglo/Caucasian fans to Tejanos who don’t speak Spanish.

“He sheds light on our music via his platform,” Sauceda said. “I think that he brings that attention to us. I think that’s really important.”

“We have a lot of Tejano fans who don’t understand Spanish,” Sauceda added. “If they could understand it, I think it would make it a little more popular.”

Beck said he had a few naysayers who balked at his idea of singing Tejano music in English but said he couldn’t argue with how happy the music made him feel.

“I can’t argue with that,” Beck said. “The fans have been so great,” he added.

Beck describes Haggards’ “If We Make it Through December,” as a gritty life song that his father, also a musician played a lot when Beck was a child.

WATCH: David Beck + Sunny Sauceda – “If We Make It Through December”

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