Tierra is a Latin R&Bband, originally from Los Angeles, California, that was first established in the 1970s by former El Chicano members Steve Salas and his brother Rudy Salas. The other original members were Bobby Navarrete, Joey Guerra, Steve Falomir, Philip Madayag, and Andre Baeza. Their biggest hit was the 1980 remake of The Intruders' 1967 hit "Together", written by Gamble & Huff, which reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #9 on the USBillboard R&B chart. It was a number one record on Los Angeles radio.
Background
Tierra has the distinction of being the first Latino band to have four songs on the national chart with two of them in the Top 100 at the same time. Around 1973, Rudy and Steve Salas formed Tierra and their self-titled debut album was recorded. By the mid-1970s the band consisted of the Salas brothers, Rudy Villa on reeds, Kenny Román on drums and Latin-percussion, Conrad Lazano on bass, Aaron Ballesteros on drums and vocals, Alfred Rubaclava on bass and Leon Bisquera on keyboards. Around that time they recorded the albumStranded for the Salsoul records label. In 1980 they had a platinum hit with their version "Together" which was a remake of the 1967 song by The Intruders. The song which was written by Gamble & Huff, reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, #30 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #9 on the US Billboard R&B chart. A few months later they had another chart hit with "Memories". Later in the year they charted again with "La La Means I Love You". In 1981, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times Rudy Salas was quoted as saying "Sometimes I couldn't feed my family, I'm going out to get a legitimate job." at those bleak moments, his then wife Martha Salas would intervene. "She would talk me out of it," Salas said. "She knows how I love music. She would tell me, "No way you're gonna quit, you'd just take it out on me and the kids and we'd all be miserable " "She was right". In 1995, they released their A New Beginning album. Around 1997, younger brother Steve supposedly quit the band after disputes over leadership of the band, money and management. In an interview he claimed that he was fired by his brother Rudy. He formed his own band and for a period of time there were two bands bearing the name Tierra. The Tierra band led by Steve Salas was booked for three nights at the Conga Room. Rudy Salas's wife Joanna Alvarado Salas contacted the club to inform them that the real Tierra was the one fronted by her husband. This led to the club's booking manager Robert Vargas getting into negotiations and mediating between the two brothers with a plan to have a band consisting of the two brothers and as many members as possible from their successful years in the early 1980s. An argument developed over the line up, and Steve Salas backed out two weeks before the concert was to take place. He then apologized, and In January 2002 they were booked to play the Conga Room.
Recent years
Their most recent album is On Solid Ground which was released in 2013. They appeared on Kid Frost's 2001 CD, Still Up in This Shit!, performing a new version of The Notations' "I'm Still Here". Band member Isaac Avila died at age 49 of a brain hemorrhage on August 30, 2009. Johnny "The Stick" Valenzuela died some time between 2010 and 2013. Bassist Steve Falomir died due to a stroke on January 21, 2012 in Los Angeles. As of May 2015, Tierra was still active and there was talk of a collaboration between Tierra and DW3 aka Down With Three that consists of Billy Mondragon, Damon Montelongo, and Eric Mondragon.
