Si Soy Llenaro: Album of the Yera!

Si Soy Llenaro is the album title or the group?

This is Colombian joropo. (No officer, that's not what. . .)

(And it's just my album of the year. I don't hear as much as most of the rest of you.)

One thing I've noticed over the years: the mix of influences in Colombian music makes it especially friendly to (North) American ears. It's like the mirror image of Louisiana, across the Caribbean.

I'm not so sure. Some Colombian music still sounds pretty odd to me, to be honest. I do like a lot of the salsa, though any given Colombian salsa CD will usually have at least a few songs with more Colombian elements that I don't "get" or like.

One reason I don't go on about it more is that even I find some of the rootsier/traditional aspects of it (especially the vocals*) a little bumpy. It's still fantastic though. It's actually a funny mix of being very traditional, and at times old fashioned sounding, with being very inventive and in some ways cosmopolitan. It's inventive within the limits of the genre, not by pulling a lot of outside stuff in--but it's still inventive. (At least I think it is. I'm not as familiar with their work as I should be, so there could be more re-hash than I realize. In that case, it's merely distinctive.)

*But they don't have a really strong lead vocalist currently. In some ways they make up for it by having a more tag-team approach.

(Despite the way it may sound, I'm not saying that reshaping the music for a broader audience would be bad.)

I am very much looking forward to what Shakira does next. It could be the craziest shit ever.

These sound clips sound good

They're called Grupo Cimarron. I reviewed them live last summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. where they were playing for free every day for a week or so. 2 singers, great instrumentalists...

Saturday night at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's La Fonda stage, a program titled "Grassroots Traditions From Central and South America" offered both quiet and energetic takes on traditional Latin music styles.

Openers Los Primos, a Mexican-rooted combo led by two acoustic guitarists and a guitarron player, served up romantic, slow dance boleros. The Silver Spring-based Guatemalan family trio Marimba Linda Xelaju followed, using mallets on a hand-carved, xylophone-like instrument six feet long. Their easy-listening tinkling evoked images of a Latinized tiki bar.

Headliner Grupo Cimarron from Colombia had its slow and subtle moments, but the band preferred frenetic triple-meter rhythms on both instrumentals and vocal numbers. Featuring a harpist, cuatro guitarist, four-string bandola llanera guitarist, acoustic bassist, maracas and two vocalists, this all-star conglomerate expertly delivered the unique sounds of eastern plains joropo music.

Resembling flamenco with its speedy string work and foot-stomping tempos, this style, as rendered by Cimarron, has stayed more folkloric than the pop version its musicians deliver when working as studio players.

On "Llanero, Si Soy Llanero" ("Plainsman, Yes I Am a Plainsman"), singer Wilton Games, in a stylish white suit and cowboy hat, displayed the tenor power of a mariachi balladeer while the harpist swiftly plucked his strings.

Fellow vocalist Ana Veydo may have looked soft with roses in her hair, but her voice was as huskily assertive as the busy syncopation behind her that had listeners dancing by evening's end.

-- Steve Kiviat

Ned's thoughts are that I doubtless did hear it but it wasn't pointed out to me as such.