A creative base in Baja
Todos Santos serves as one of Cordovas' two creative bases. The band's official biography describes a life divided between a farm outside Nashville and a retreat in the Baja artist community, where frontman Joe Firstman, guitarist Lucca Soria and fellow collaborators develop songs together.
That connection helped shape Destiny Hotel. According to ATO Records, the band spent more than three months working on material in Todos Santos before heading to Los Angeles to record the 2020 album.
The band's local involvement also includes the annual Tropic of Cancer Concert Series. A June 2019 Rolling Stone profile reported that Firstman traveled to Mexico each year with his bandmates to write and host the festival. After buying property in Todos Santos, he expanded his songwriting retreats into an event featuring both established performers and newcomers.
The official Todos Santos site described one edition of the multi-day series that ran January 12-22, with Cordovas, La Santa Cecilia, Langhorne Slim, Las Cafeteras and Joan Osborne among the performers. Hotel California was to host much of that edition, while restaurants La Morena and La Esquina also served as venues. Proceeds were designated for the local fire department.
The music behind the show
Gringo Gazette describes Cordovas' music as rooted in folk and country, with a rhythmic rock-and-roll drive. Vocal harmonies and melodic songwriting are central to that sound, alongside guitar arrangements and folk storytelling. The listing characterizes the band's performances as relaxed but energetic, with an emphasis on the musicians' interplay and spontaneity.
The listing identifies Destiny Hotel as the group's latest full-length album and describes it as a significant step in the band's development. Its account emphasizes the record's poetic writing and loose musical approach, with folk melodies, country influences and rock-and-roll rhythms supporting songs that range from reflective to celebratory.
Rick Parker produced Destiny Hotel in Los Angeles. ATO Records notes his work with Lord Huron, Beck and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and describes the album as building on the harmony-centered roots rock of That Santa Fe Channel, Cordovas' 2018 debut for the label.
Firstman and the band's beginnings
Firstman formed Cordovas in the early 2010s after an earlier career as a solo artist and television bandleader. The band's official biography traces that career to Atlantic Records, which released his debut album, The War of Women, in 2003. He opened shows for Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson before the label dropped him.
He then became bandleader on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, working with musicians including Kamasi Washington and Thundercat. Cordovas followed as Firstman returned to working within a band.
The core lineup on the group's ATO Records releases consists of Firstman on vocals and multiple instruments, Soria on guitar and vocals, Sevans Henderson on keyboards, and Toby Weaver on vocals and multiple instruments. In the band's official biography, Firstman calls Soria "the one soldier that understands what I'm doing best."
