The L&Ms

The core members of The L&Ms, shown here from left to right, are Larry Horwitz, who is the lead guitarist, Mike Young, bassist, and Mike Kropp, lead vocalist and guitarist. Each have over 40 years of experience in music and live in San Antonio, Texas.

The group was formed in December of 2008 as an acoustic trio, playing songs ranging Bob Dylan to Bob Marley, with stops along the way for Tom Petty, The Beatles, Stones, Van Morrison, and the like.

Though The L&Ms are a premier group performing cover songs at local venues, they also are songwriters, who write and produce their own music. Their first CD, Viola will be released in the summer of 2011.

Larry Horwitz, lead guitar, is an accomplished musician who has been part of the South Texas scene since his teen years. He and singer/guitarist Mike Kropp were founding members of a local group 'Stinger' in the 1980s. Larry is well known in the local music community as a gifted guitar technician, having worked for over 20 years for Century Music Systems.

Bassist, Mike Young, grew up in Florida, working his way through school playing with Southern Comfort. He was a founding member of Harry Wurzbach & the 410s and joined forces with Mike and Larry to form The L&Ms. He is also a business technologist who specializes in business intelligence, data warehousing, and web applications development.

Mike Kropp is the group's principal songwriter and vocalist, who has a distinct capability to play and sing a variety of musical genres. He is noted for his earthy approach to the blues guitar playing. Mike has always pressed his hands to the wood. He is a specialist in antique workwoood and restoration.

The Quartet

When the ocassion calls for the group to 'kick it up a notch,' the electric guitars come out and 'Two Gates' Wall, shown here on the left, joins on drums. Bert 'Two Gates' Wall is from Leakey, Texas and has been a drummer since childhood. He is also a sales representative for a musical instruments company and travels the Lone Star state visiting local music retailers. He is known throughout the state and is a recognized face at national industry conferences. He joined forces with The L&Ms, as a sideman, in 2010. He came by his official band name, 'Two Gates', after describing his ranch style homestead in Leakey, which requires two gates to keep the animals safely on the property.

The Quintet

The L&Ms, as a quintet, adds the talents of Ricky Hernandez to the mix, shown here seated on the left. Ricky is a San Antonio native, raised in household, where music was the center of the life of the family. His grandfather, Cenobio Hernandez was a composer, arranger and teacher, who wrote a massive amount of music in the last ten years of his life. Hence it was Ricky’s destiny to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He has been a working musician in the San Antonio area since he was 13 years old.

From rhythm and blues to rock and roll, jazz and latin music; from musical soundtracks, classical and country music, Ricky has played it all. In the mid seventies he began working on stage musicals, the first, being the rock opera, Alice and Wonderland. In the mid seventies, he co-wrote the music for a musical adaptation of Dr. Jekle and Mr. Hyde, entitled The Bloody Mr. Hyde.

Throughout the years, Ricky was always involved in creative projects. One project, which became a life long dream realized, was a recording of his grandfather’s music. The cd, entitled RECUERDOS, has 12 songs and the music in the Library at Texas State University.

Ricky has written and developed with his partner, a TV pilot, (not produced) entitled SOMEBODY SCREAM! He is working on developing it into a musical. Tracks for TV written by Ricky and a friend from Los Angeles, have been used for AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL, KIMORA’S LIFE IN THE FAST LANE and MY SWEET 16 and on the Spanish network news program, LEVANTATE. He has been playing piano and entertaining at Howl at the Moon, a rock and roll dueling piano club. He has been with the company for 15 years. He is also co-musical director at The Magik Theatre, writing music and doing underscore for the shows there. He is currently working on the musical, RECUERDOS-AMOR Y REVOLUCION, with his sister, Veronica. The musical is a love story that takes place during the Mexican Revolution. They are using the music of their grandfather, as well as new songs being written by their sisters, Dolores and Rosario and their Grammy award winning brother, Bubba. Ricky is working with Richard Rosen on producing a musical they wrote entitled, PARADISE CITY. They performed songs from the show at Luminaria 2010. He has a Country-Western musical on the shelf, as well as a couple of one-man shows that he hopes to produce in the future.