American Band, the new album by Drive-By Truckers, immediately signals the songs are about to tackle issues in contemporary America with the first words of the first song. In the opening track, “Ramon Casiano,” the first lines proclaim, “It all started with the border,/ And that’s still where it is today.”
The Killing of Ramón Casiano
Casiano was a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed in 1931 in Laredo, Texas. The killing occurred after the 17-year-old Harlon Carter returned home from school and his mother told him about three Latinos hanging around the family’s property.
Carter took his shotgun and found Casiano and two friends at a nearby swimming hole. Carter insisted the three go with him to his home to answer questions, but Casiano refused and pulled out a knife. Reportedly, after Casiano laughed off Carter’s attempts to take the young men, Carter shot Casiano in the chest and killed him.
Harlon Carter’s Career
The incident would have long been forgotten except for Carter’s career after his trial and appeal. Initially, a court convicted Carter of the homicide and sentenced to three years in prison. But later, an appeals court reversed the conviction because of an incorrect jury instruction on self defense.
After the prosecution was eventually dropped, Carter went to work for the U.S. Border Patrol starting in 1936. Eventually, he rose to leadership positions within the National Rifle Association.
In 1977, Carter led a revolt within the NRA that led to his election as NRA Executive Vice President. Under his leadership, the NRA moved from its focus on issues like hunting to take a more hard-line stance against any laws limiting ownership of guns.
Carter’s killing of Ramón Casiano, however, laid buried in his past for a long time. After denying his involvement in the killing for some time, Carter finally admitted it in 1981.
The Song
The killing of Casiano echoes in our time, with links to the killing of Trayvon Martin, who is more explicitly referenced in another song on the album, “What It Means.” “Ramon Casiano” also connects to the current presidential election’s focus on immigration.
Songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers tackle a number of issues making the album relevant today while also making great music. In “Ramon Casiano,” which was written by Cooley, the chorus indicts Casiano’s killer and several of today’s leaders.
He had the makings of a leader,
Of a certain kind of men,
Who need to feel the world’s against him,
Out to get ’em if it can.
Men whose trigger pull their fingers;
Of men who’d rather fight than win,
United in a revolution,
Like in mind and like in skin.
“Ramon Casiano” is biting commentary, all the more relevant because it comes from a southern band. The Houston Press asserts that the band’s new album American Band “reclaim[s] Southern rock for the good guys.” Meanwhile, Slate affirms that on the album, “[w]ith songs about racism, police shootings, and immigration, the Southern group is making rock great again.” NPR concludes, “American Band lives up to its name in how it digests, understands and challenges the notions of what it means to be American.”
The praise being heaped on American Band
But even if one song cannot change things, it can reach some people and educate a little bit. If nothing else, the song makes one wonder what kind of man Ramon Casiano might have grown into had he been given a chance, even if we already know how things turned out for his killer. “It all started with the border,/ And that’s still where it is today.”
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