Sue Bonzell 0:15
it’s the Up N Country show where the heart of Nashville matches thrilling adventures with rising country artists. I’m your host Sue Bonzell. Join us as we explore the vibrant Nashville area alongside talented musicians combining exhilarating escapades with exclusive interviews and energetic live performances. Each week, we dive into the captivating world of country music, showcasing the next generation of artists who are poised to make their mark on the industry. Let’s get it started. Andrea Vasquez joins me at the oven country studio in Nashville, where she’ll play us a little bit of music. And we’ll get into the kitchen to make some refreshing Ranch Water. Plus Andrea’s delicious guacamole recipe.
Andrea Vasquez 1:07
I over think serval. This voice in my head. Thank you for having me. I’m glad to be here.
Sue Bonzell 1:16
Well, we got to talk new music. You’ve got new music?
Andrea Vasquez 1:19
Yes, I do. I released a project called the veggie made. If you listen to the entire EP or album, it’s seven songs. So it kind of is a little bit in between. You can seriously just listen to the whole story start to finish. So Vegemite is clearly about like cheating. Okay, takes you through that. What happened? The angry phase, the sad phase, the kind of like I’m going to be okay, phase. So it’s just kind of that whole stage
Sue Bonzell 1:44
of grieving a breakup. And these are all your songs that you’ve written? Correct? Yes.
Andrea Vasquez 1:49
And CO written with other fabulous writers here in town. Exactly.
Sue Bonzell 1:52
Exactly. So So drawing from personal experience. I’m sure I don’t want to ask you too many personal questions. Yes. But yes, that’s usually the case. Right? Yeah. It doesn’t help when you’re going through those things. And even with some of your songwriters, to who, you know, they probably contributed with their experiences as well. Like, is it is it kind of therapeutic to be writing songs like that? Definitely.
Andrea Vasquez 2:14
Because I feel like a writing session is definitely a therapy session at the same time, and it’s so personal. So
Sue Bonzell 2:21
you call yourself country with a little Tajin. Now I love to hearing
Andrea Vasquez 2:26
it’s my favorite thing. I put it on fruit. I put on popcorn, margaritas, like on all of it.
Sue Bonzell 2:33
And I have a feeling we’re gonna be making some maybe some Guac and maybe some work right? Now you got a new song out in a new video. Tell me about that.
Andrea Vasquez 2:41
So the videos overthink. overthink is a very personal song. It’s actually the song that I wrote by myself. So I’m very proud of that. I think I was snowed in. And I had a whole bottle of wine to myself, because why not? And I was just overthinking everything about, you know, being an independent artist and being a Latina and country music and just all the things and I think I showed it to my team. And they’re like, oh my god, you this really good. And I was like really? I love it too. And
Sue Bonzell 3:10
we’re like don’t overthink it
Andrea Vasquez 3:17
too, and things for me. This is too good to be true. Because it’s so caught up in law
Sue Bonzell 3:54
home videos of kind of chasing the dream and all of that. And it was just so much fun. And
it’s a really cute video with some of the video footage, like you said from your childhood. Now it looks like it’s you and your sister. Yeah. Are you the younger one? Are you the older one older when the older one. That’s what I thought I was? Like, you know what mom did a good job of giving equal time to both kids. So you got to give kudos to mom for that. Yes, she did. She
Andrea Vasquez 4:17
did. She was great. Everything about being a Latina and country music got featured on CMT, with a bunch of my peers that are also in the same genre. So that was kind of like a little full circle moment.
Sue Bonzell 4:27
So tell me more about kind of the Latina in country music there are seems like a lot more Latina women, Latino men kind of coming up in country music. Tell me your thoughts on that.
Andrea Vasquez 4:39
I love it. And I feel like this community to anything that’s so special about the movement is there’s so many people excited about it. And I feel like a lot of my peers and I are really excited to kind of do it together. Kind of like if she wins, I win. He wins. I win. It’s kind of like I’ve just seen that theme throughout it. So it’s been kind of cool just to see Everybody’s getting really excited around that buzz, you know, people get more excited than when it feels like everyone’s against each email. Yeah, I grew up listening to a lot of Shakira a lot of Selena. So those are two very powerful women. I love divas I love people like Martina McBride and Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood Miranda Lambert just women have put on a really awesome show and are just who they are
Sue Bonzell 5:24
yeah
Sue Bonzell 8:23
If you watch my show for any amount of time. You know that I have a world famous game called Truth or truth. Andrea Vasquez is going to play right now. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. All right.
Andrea Vasquez 8:36
What famous person do people do people think you look like most I have been told when I was little and I had more wavy like blonder hair. Well, it’s always been faithful. But you know, when I was wavier that it looked like Shakira and then in high school I used to get Vanessa Hudgens whenever I
Sue Bonzell 8:56
suppose. Yeah. Okay, so I could totally see that. Maybe so I don’t know. I really don’t know. Well, that those are both really good. Yeah, yeah, we’ll go with it. Yeah, go with that one. I like that. And now we’re gonna do a little cowboy wisdom some words for inspiration just in case you need a little inspiration. We’ll see what kind of words you’re gonna get. Okay.
Andrea Vasquez 9:17
Every cowgirl knows if you’re wanting to find yourself a good stallion don’t go looking in the donkey.
Sue Bonzell 9:24
That’s a good one. You found a good one. Right? I did not in the donkey curl.
Andrea Vasquez 9:27
No, but there’s a lot of bad ones out there. So yeah.
Sue Bonzell 9:31
Good advice. Right. I kind of stalked you a little bit on your social media because that’s kind of what I do. Now I know y’all do it. We you do you do quite a bit of kind of get ready with me. Yeah, and you know, fit check. I kind of love it. I love it. But one of the things that I really liked was all of your your girl snacks like your girl dinners. And they are like, it’s like you should be the face of Trader Joe’s.
Andrea Vasquez 9:56
Thank you. Can you tell Trader Joe’s that oh Am I mean it’s I think it’s one of the most California things about
Sue Bonzell 10:02
me. Let’s do a California tour.
Andrea Vasquez 10:05
Yes, that’d be so much fun.
Sue Bonzell 10:07
Oh, let’s do that. Can I go?
Andrea Vasquez 10:09
Yes. Okay that in a while.
Sue Bonzell 10:11
Let’s do it. We’ll plan that then you can just be with your family. It’d be great. Yeah.
Andrea Vasquez 10:15
It’s like a mini vacation too.
Sue Bonzell 10:17
Awesome. Well, I’m getting a little hungry and kind of thirsty. I think maybe we could make something special. Yeah,
Andrea Vasquez 10:24
I think I have some tequila.
Sue Bonzell 10:26
I think I think you know how to make this again. She’s gonna teach me a few things. Yes. Let’s head into the kitchen
Okay, Andrea Vasquez. My Latina chickity who’s here in my kitchen. I’m super excited. You’re gonna teach me how to make your famous guacamole. Your your own special recipe. Yes. To make
Andrea Vasquez 10:50
this ranch water my little version? I have to rim with Tajin because da This is they call it Chamoy. But this is like basically like Tajin sauce with okay liquid to him, essentially. And it’s gonna help us basically, it’s gonna help us remember drink. Okay, perfectly like that idea. Um, my favorite tequila Casa amigos. You can’t go wrong with like a nice little Blanca. I feel like most people like that it’s safe. And then a seltzer water. And the trick is to find something that already has lime. Oh, okay. Like a lime Lacroix, lime. Something like that’s a Sikh, whatever. Now we’re
Sue Bonzell 11:28
making three. Oh, in line because your PR persons here so you know, we got to you got to make sure she gets a margarita. Yes. Yes. Well take care of our people. Right. Yeah.
Andrea Vasquez 11:38
Well deserved. Okay, so my trick for everything is I use a lot of line. Okay. And you said you like a lot. Oh, I
Sue Bonzell 11:43
love line. Okay,
Andrea Vasquez 11:44
so let’s just kind of on line, okay, because this is just going to be for the guac. And for margaritas. Spice is optional. Not everybody loves it, but this will have a little bit of a kick. So I think we’ll be fine. Okay, we’re gonna use this on her cutting board. Okay,
Sue Bonzell 11:58
all right. She knows what she’s doing. So
Andrea Vasquez 12:01
this is a trick so you just kind of that’s literally it. So we’re gonna take a glass and you’re gonna do this little Rimmer with Tajin. So yeah, coated it nicely. I feel like when you do it with like salt, it’ll flake off. This is very small. Okay, that is very smart. I just shake it.
Sue Bonzell 12:28
I hadn’t thought about this. This is a great idea. I have never seen that done before. Yeah, that tricks tricks here. So it’s nice to have a drink when you’re you’re cooking. We’ll get into it a little bit of a little boost. To get excited about the you know, we’re gonna pair it together a
little we’ll beverage with guacamole. So true. Try not to mess it up.
Andrea Vasquez 12:53
I know it’s just so pretty. So the next step will be or tequila we’re gonna do an ounce just to weeknight
Sue Bonzell 13:08
I don’t know if you notice these glasses. Do you know what they are? No, but
Andrea Vasquez 13:11
they’re so pretty.
Sue Bonzell 13:12
They are the bottom of wine bottles.
Andrea Vasquez 13:14
Oh. I love that.
I love some wine. I love a hit like a solid amount of lime and you’ll think me too because it’s going to make it taste like there’s no tequila in it. Okay.
Sue Bonzell 13:30
Even though it is good tequila, so yes, but it’s just dangerous. So
Andrea Vasquez 13:39
like, and I’m not a bartender, by the way, so that’s
Sue Bonzell 13:42
okay. You don’t judge me. There’s no judgement. We’re excited that we’re having a great so that’s a good thing.
Andrea Vasquez 13:51
You don’t have one of those like fancy little stirrers. So we’re just gonna have a night.
Sue Bonzell 13:58
Now professional bartenders. Yeah. This is called theater to theater. No. Cheers,
Andrea Vasquez 14:04
Tony thing.
Sue Bonzell 14:09
Huh? Oh, yes. Yeah. Oh my god. It happens. Cheers. Oh, that is fresh. Mm hmm. No to him. She has trouble.
Oh, yeah. Isn’t that usual?
Oh, no, that’s delicious. Yeah. Okay.
We’re gonna take a little break clean up. We’re going to make sure that Nicole gets her drink because we got to keep our PR gal happy.
Okay, we’re ready for some guacamole. You’re gonna be oil some more of your cooking secret. Andrea Vasquez. I’m impressed already with the ranch water. One more cheers on that. So great job. Great recipe. Okay, so what are we gonna do?
Andrea Vasquez 15:36
Okay, so we’re gonna first cut up our avocado.
Sue Bonzell 15:41
I’m the sous the sous chef to the sous chef.
Andrea Vasquez 15:44
Oh, yeah, that’s perfect. Literally. Again, not a chef either. So relax the comments.
Sue Bonzell 15:54
Listen, there are multiple ways to get avocado out of an avocado squeeze it like people Scoop it look you’re getting the same end right getting in the bowl
Andrea Vasquez 16:06
till the last drop squeezes it out. It’s
like actually did not like avocado as a kid. I think I was like really picky. Yeah, it was like the texture to me. I know like it’s really very Mexican of us. Oh, there, you know. So we’re gonna squeeze some of our lines in here.
Like, oh, I’m doing them upside
Sue Bonzell 16:31
down. I used to do them upside down. I thought that’s how I’m done. And then I finally had to google
Andrea Vasquez 16:35
it. Or like no,
Sue Bonzell 16:36
I was doing it the wrong way. Wrong for years and like, I felt really dumb but okay. So let’s face down one a lot of that citrus to help it from keeping going brown.
Andrea Vasquez 16:54
Yeah, that’s like a nice little trick to preserve your avocado.
Plenty of salt.
Pepper, pepper.
Love the pepper.
And with good luck tamales less is more like less ingredients. Then add it getting crazy with it. Some Tajin and of course
Sue Bonzell 17:22
a little bit a little bit, a little bit.
Andrea Vasquez 17:24
Okay. then it gets kind of easier to more like whip it up.
Sue Bonzell 17:29
So how much are these? Do we want?
Half a jalapeno.
A whole-a, jalapeno.
Andrea Vasquez 17:40
Half is probably good. We also have a little bit of cilantro that already
Sue Bonzell 17:44
really need a better knife.
could think Christmas is I
put that on the Christmas list. Or maybe somebody just come over and sharpen all my knives. That too. That would be a really good gift for me. Maybe sharpen knives.
Asking for fresh bread.
You ready? Yep. Putting all the whole thing in. Let’s do it. Yeehaw love it. Okay, good. Might need a sip of my drink for that.
Andrea Vasquez 18:18
Between that and between enhancement golden and we’re gonna add a little
bit of cilantro. Oh, okay. Can we just chop it? Huh? Okay,
this is probably good. This is good enough.
Sue Bonzell 18:29
So now you’re you’re a fan of the Tajin. And you kind of used that as a little bit of your vibrator brand and kind of your tagline country with a little tahini. Yeah, so it
Andrea Vasquez 18:43
started off as a little bit of an inside joke with some friends and they’re like, like country we love to hear and I was like, oh Ding ding ding let’s make stickers. Let’s make merch that says that. So that was just kind of a fun thing. And I think it’s been kind of catching on. So another
Sue Bonzell 18:58
sponsor we need Tajin
Andrea Vasquez 19:00
and Trader Joe’s Tajin Trader Joe’s ready TNT.
Sue Bonzell 19:03
Okay. That is looking really good. Remember chips to try it now. Okay. Mm
hmm. Mm hmm. Who has got the lime? The lime was like a must have for me. It’s just like the just a little kick to it. A little. Yeah. Yeah, really good. Because with this perfect pairing.
I love Mexican food. This is so perfect. I love it to love it. Well, thank you so much for coming over and making some guacamole and ranch water and singing the song. We had a great time. It’s nice to have I had a blast. Thank you. Andrea Vasquez everybody. Join me Sue Bonzell every week for interviews and adventures with rising country artists of the country
and then they’re like 15 I literally got like, oh my gosh, the flake. I get it. I know. You know. That’s a real thing. We got a brown one. Oh, she’s very cooked. Wait a minute. That’s like Teddy. Good luck. That’s, that has got to be good.
Is it anybody that tastes any good?
Andrea Vasquez 20:43
I don’t know. I don’t want to try to be a
little overdone charred
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