Alfredo Olivas Essentials

The talented Alfredito Olivas was nicknamed “El Patroncito” early for his precocious songwriting and preternaturally mature accordion skills: The guy penned his first song in 2003, at age nine. Within a few short years he was crooning authoritative narcocorridos describing (some might say glorifying) the culture of drugs, guns, and cartels that rules wide swaths of northern Mexico. In recent years, Olivas has convincingly pivoted toward norteñas romanticas. But his corridos, sometimes sung from the perspective of a dead man, remain the most chilling in his catalog, particularly in light of his own storied brushes with gun violence.