Perlas

Description

American folk singer/songwriter Josephine Foster teams up with a band led by Spanish singer/guitarist Victor Herrero for Anda Jaleo, which is a new version of the collection of Spanish folk songs called Las Canciones Populares when it was recorded in 1931 by Federico García Lorca, who collected the songs, and the group La Argentinita. Although the songs do not have any overt political content, they were banned under the Franco dictatorship and have been identified with the Spanish Civil War. In the U.S., performers such as the Weavers (who recorded Anda Jaleo itself) have taken them up. Foster and Herrero provide authentic settings for the songs, which Foster sings in Spanish in her high, nasal voice. Herreros musicians, playing guitars and percussion, often give them a flamenco feel, although the delicate Los Reyes de la Baraja (Kings of the Cards) sounds almost Japanese and Foster takes Nana de Sevilla (Lullaby from Seville), the closing track, a cappella. An important collection of Spanish folk music, nearly lost to history, is revived and preserved here. ~ William Ruhlmann