FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
PICO RIVERA - When Ashley Heard Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart" at a quinceanera, the 24-year-old Pico Rivera resident felt a bit more at ease about the secret she has harbored for years.
You see, Villegas is Latino and loves American country-western music.
"It's like a secret passion," she said.
As it is now turning out, Villegas is far from alone in her passion. Country-western music acts are reporting noticing more Latino fans at their concerts. As a result, Nashville's Music Row is now starting to dream of its Next Big Audience.
After all, many Latinos in the United States, especially Mexicans, already love norteno, a traditional sound that sprang from the rural experince of northern Mexico.
"I do think a huge portion of the Latin American population loves the same themes: meetin' greetin', cheatin' and retreatin'" said Eddie Wright-Rios, a Vanderbilt University professor who specializes in the cultural history of modern Mexico.
Superficial similariites aside, no one really knows if the nations' largest minority group is ready for fiddles and steel guitars. The phrase "country music' doesn't even have a translation in Spanish.
"If they know it at all, they'll call it 'musica country'." Wright-Rios said.
The Country Music Association says there are no good studies to show how many Latinos listen to country already, so the CMA formed its own task force to investigate.
That happened shortly after the only country music station in Los ANgeles, the nation's secon-largest city, with a Latino population of 49 percent, abruptly changed formats to urban contemporary in August.
"I honestly don't think this is a knee-jerk reaction to that." said Jeff Walker, a CMA board member who chairs the task force. "Some of our artist board members, like John Rich of Big and Rich, have noticed a lot of Latinos showing up at their shows.
"We want to look at the marketing aspect and how to tap into that." he said.
Country-western music enjoyed a 17.7 percent increase in album sales in the first half of this year - the largest percentage jump of any genre - but overall U.S. albun sales are down, and music executives are always interested in an untapped market.
Latinos are the youngest, fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau. They were 14 percent of the population in 2004, but made up nearly half the nation's growth so far this decade.
Country-western music has tried in recent years to broaden the image of its audience as white people in rural, red-state America - and effort symbolized by the CMA holding its annual awards ceremony in New York, instead of Nashville, last year.
Country-western music fan David Hernandes, 32, of La Puente believes in the potential of the genre to reach more Latinos, but knows it could be a tough sell. "It's a matter of finding how to market it." he said.
Eva Melo, of Tennessee based Latin Market Communications, said the CMA has requested a propsal for a Latino market study, but she is skeptical her fellow Latins will take to the genre.
"A lot of people confuse regioinal Mexican music with country because it comes from the ranches and farms. But if you translate a country song into Spanish, it wouldn't sound like regional Mexican music," she said.
"In regional Mexican they sing about their culture and customs, things you don't have in the U.S. I don't know if Hispanics will relate th country music because it doesn't come out of Mexico. It comes out of Nashville."
Also, the Latino audience is not monolithic.
"In different areas of the country, they listen to different music,: she said. "In Miami it's more salsa, merengue and cumbia. California is more Spanish, hybrid, fusion."
Rick Rodriguez who manages the Latin division of Nashville based Songs for the Planet and works as a song plugger for the same, has been trying to encourage music Row to mix with Latino artists and music.
"I'm a Mexican from South Texas," he said, "I grew up listening to people like Freddy Fender and Johnny Rodriguez. If we can get old school country music, like back in the day what was coming from Hispanic cats, I think it would be big."
Texas besed singer-songwriter John Arthur Martinez who was the runner-up on the inaugural season of "Nashville Star" (USA Network's country music talent competition like "American Idol"), said Latino listeners are already there.
"Nashvillehas not made a conscious effort to court the Hispanic audience on a major scale, but without realizing it they've already attracted people like my sister," he said. "Her CD collection is 90 percent country and 10 percent tejano."
Maria Pena owns Las Americas Music in Nashville and carries music in Spanish almost exclusively. No one ever comes into her store looking for country, said the Chihuahua, Mexico native, adding that she soubted her customers were familiar with the genre.
But Pena's employee, Camelia Wissar, also of Chihuahua, said she listens to country and her friends do as well. Asked who she likes, she listed Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks.
"I listened to it in Mixico too", sh said in Spanish.
Maritza Baca, a marketer who recently formed the U.S. Hispanic Country Music Association in California, is convinced Latinos are already gravitatin toward country-western. She's met with the CMA twice about it.
"I think there's definitely a trend." she said.
Wright-Rios said he can understand why Latinos are an attractive audience to the music industry.
"I know a lot of people who don't have a lot of money, bu if a good Mexican band comes along, they'll drop $150 on a pair of tickets," he said.