I've loved Mexican singer Juan Cirerol's music since the first time I heard it. But I didn't fully understand it until I traveled to his native Mexicali on an assignment for NPR. Mexicali is an infernally hot town on the border. It's as traditionally northern Mexican as it gets, complete with white flour tortillas (typical of the north) and de nortena music blasting from the passing camiones. But it also is drenched with the cultural trickle-down of its upstairs neighbor: Calexico, Calif. You hear as much English-language country music on the radio as you do banda. Cirerol told me that, as a music-hungry kid growing up in Mexicali, he lapped up that American country music — particularly his grandfather's favorite, Johnny Cash.