My husband of twenty-four years put together a playlist for After Hours on Milagro Street. I am blessed to be married to a man who’s my biggest cheerleader.

Playlists are his specialty. When we were just “friends,” he gave me a mixtape for my Christmas drive home. (Yes, I said mixtape. We’re old). My brother took one listen and said, “You know that guy’s really into you.” My husband also makes playlists of his favorite songs from every year. I'm honored to get his expertise.

Angelina: Why did you make a playlist for this book release?

Peter: I don’t remember what inspired me particularly but I wanted to do something to help promote the book. I also think the title of the book evokes music.

A: Why did you want to help promote the book?

P: So I can retire early. I showed a great deal of restraint in what I didn’t include. Songs that I enjoy that you would not and do not.

After Hours on Milagro Street Playlist

Tell Mama - Etta James
A: My bad-ass bartender heroine, Alex Torres, might be punk-rock cool but she loves old school R&B. I’m a huge fan of Etta James and I loved the idea of her listening to this bad-ass song!
Can I Get It - Adele
P: You write sex in the first chapter. The chorus is can “I get it, can I get it right now.”
You’ll Go Crazy (featuring King Princess) - Mark Ronson
A: I love this song sooooo much. It’s so sexual. And it’s the woman who is sexually powerful. “When I go down for you, you’ll go crazy.” It’s exactly something Alex would say.
Yo Perreo Sola - Bad Bunny
A: This awesome Bad Bunny song is about women who dance alone at the clubs and do not need or want you to bother them. Alex Torres is definitely a woman who’s never needed a man to get her dance on.
Alien Superstar - Beyoncé
P: It’s about a bad bitch who sees herself as unique and inimitable.
NFWMB - Hozier
P: This was the first song that I thought of from the hero’s point of view. And it’s about a guy who understand that his baby is strong and no one fucks with her.
A: I squealed when I heard this on the playlist
Rancho Azul, Calexico
A: Love this spooky western song and the heroine who “wears a dress of milagros.”
Garden of the Dead, The Pine Hill Haints
P: It’s got a gothic sensibility. It’s also our son Gabriel’s pick.
A: My husband asked friends and family if they wanted to contribute. Which kinda kills me.
Weighty Ghost, Wintersleep
A: This is an 00s song about feeling so lonely and alone that you feel like a ghost. My poor heroine feels a little like this when the books begins. “A ghost just needs a home.”
Faithless Ghost, Andrew Bird
P: It’s a new song about ghosts by an artist I like. So I paired it with the song about ghosts that you like that’s a little older.
American Girl, Rhett Miller
P: I picked that after your book event and you were talking a lot about where you were from, about how your family being American and from America is important. To take a song that was probably written about a white American girl was subversive. It’s Rhett, who we both have an affinity for. And we like how he shakes his hair.
Sour Candy, Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK
P: This song is about someone who is hard on the outside but, if you give them a chance and get to know them, they’re compelling like sour candy. They’re surprising and sweet underneath the hard exterior.
Fire, Parov Stelas
P: That song is a sex scene. There’s a sex scene in the middle of the playlist.
Slow Down, Skip Marley and H.E.R.
A: “Girl, slow down. Girl, let me love you. Darling, slow down. Let me get to know you.” This is my hero’s plea.
At Last, Etta James
A: This is the song that’s playing when Alex makes her final bid for the heart of our hero.
About Down Time, Lizzo
P: Also a song about a bad bitch. At this point in the playlist, the song titles start having meaning. At Last then About Damn Time, then (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
P: When I think of Independence and Cherryvale, I think of your cousin, Casey, who sent us a picture of him with a shaving cream beard singing along to Michael McDonald. It’s an inside joke. No one else will get it. But there are a lot of inside jokes with your family.
Closing Time, Semisonic
P: It’s the last song. Last call. And the end of the playlist.