Joe Reyes has embarked on many musical journeys, but none of his peers would dare call him a journeyman. Journeymen rarely pursue their passion projects, and they certainly don’t win Grammy awards. Reyes, rather, is an ace who’s dabbled in just about every sound imaginable.

He got his start in local metal gigs in the 1980s, played guitar for the jazz fusion band Fine Line later in the decade, reeled off a successful run as half of the flamenco guitar duo Lara & Reyes throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Reyes now performs regularly with the wildly fun art-rock group Buttercup, the scorching Americana band Mitch Webb and the Swindles, and the plaintive pop outfit Demitasse. All the while he consistently grinds away as a producer and session musician, even working with renowned Texan artists like Doug Sahm, Flaco Jiménez, Augie Meyers, and Freddy Fender.

“I get to work with great artists all over Texas, and they all have the same sensibility, the same personality, and we all have the same sort of musical wheelhouse that we work from,” Reyes says. “Dude, it’s a great world to be in.”

Reyes admits that a fair amount of the musicians who venture to his home studio to lay down recordings gawk at his Grammy at some point. He won the award for producing and contributing guitar and backing vocals to the 2002 Freddy Fender record La Música de Baldemar Huerta, which won Best Latin Pop Album. Reyes fondly remembers the surreal experience of those studio sessions in Corpus Christi and the swagger that the Tejano legend exhibited despite his failing health (Fender would die from lung cancer four years after the album’s release).

“I couldn’t believe that the guy I used to watch on Hee Haw is standing next to me, and we’re giving each other head nods and connecting,” Reyes recalls, adding that the work he did for Fender made his dad proud, which remains far more important to him than the Grammy he received.

Demitasse, “Leave the House” (2018)

Reyes also earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Pop Album in 2001 while in Lara & Reyes. The instrumental group that Reyes formed with Sergio Lara in 1989 remains the most globally visible point of his career. The pair recorded six albums on Higher Octave Music (including the timeless Christmas album Navidad) and embarked on several tours through California, Texas, and Mexico before going on hiatus when Lara moved to Mexico shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Burned out on the flamenco style, it was during this break that Reyes immersed himself into several eclectic projects.

It took some arm-twisting, but he convinced his friends Erik Sanden and Odie to let him join Buttercup and never looked back. Buttercup has become well-known in San Antonio for its unique performances—taking its audience on a musical tour at the Majestic Theater, rocking outrageous fan-selected covers in art galleries, and even staging an “Audience of One” night where they sequestered themselves in a small bar room and performed songs for audience members one by one. In recent years Reyes and Sanden developed a side project called Demitasse as a means of coping with each of their fathers’ deaths. Their reflective lyrics and somber pop caught on with NPR, which featured the band on All Things Considered and marked Demitasse as a band to see at SXSW in 2015.

When Reyes isn’t performing with Buttercup, Demitasse, the Swindles, Nicolette Good, or as a solo act these days, he’s producing recordings for local artists and giving lessons to young guitar players at SpaceTone Music in San Antonio. Although his skills have taken him far, Reyes says that making connections and being there for his fellow artists has been just as vital to his longevity in the music industry. “I just do what I can to help other people,” he says, “and when you do that, your life basically writes itself.”

On UTSA

Joe Reyes took the nontraditional path to his bachelor’s degree at UTSA. Starting fresh out of high school in 1981, he briefly pursued a B.B.A. with a concentration in industrial management. Over an ensuing decade of semesters peppered around musical tours, Reyes found a better fit in liberal arts programs, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1992. He credits poetry workshops for helping him hone sharp lyrics and avoid songwriting clichés.

As he recalls typing English papers on flights home from gigs, he’s thankful for the guiding discipline UTSA provided. “UTSA’s art and humanities departments helped me be not only a better artist and teacher but a better person,” he says, citing professors Joe Stuessy and Wendy Barker as influential instructors. “A good liberal arts education should do that, and my experience at UTSA did exactly that.”

On His Favorite Guitarists

George Harrison: “He was the youngest Beatle and, man, that guy could really play guitar by the time he was 20 years old. He wasn’t a flashy guy, but he was an effective guitar player.”

Eddie Van Halen: “I was in high school when [Van Halen’s first] record came out. I’ll never forget that we were driving and I was like, ‘What’s this?!’ I turned it up and was just wondering how he was doing all the things he was doing. His tone, his phrasing—everything about it was so new and fresh. He literally flipped the world over and nobody could escape him. The thing I love about Eddie Van Halen the most is that he’s smiling in most of his photos on stage. I do that too.”

Jon Brion: “He plays this style that I play—an ‘it will work in any genre’ kind of style. I definitely copied all the things he did on all of the favorite records I’ve produced.”