Button Accordion and Bandoneón Music from Northern Uruguay

Uruguay is to Argentina as Wales is to England: smaller, saner, greener, less populated, less hurried and under-celebrated. The north of the buffer state is close to that other big brother, Brazil, but as this collection of waltzes and mazurkas, milongas and habaneras, polcas and chotis (ie polkas and schottisches) makes clear, the mood across the Uruguayan pampas is more attuned to the pastoral picaresque than to big-city samba. The band takes its name from Walter Roldán, a veteran musical icon who has been performing since 1958 and is a nimble and knowing button accordionist. Luis Alberto ‘Chichi’ Vidiella plays a smaller bandoneón (squeezebox) but, where this instrument provides a kind of gasping melancholy in tango, its exhalations are far jollier in Uruguayan folk music. Ricardo Cunha’s fat-bodied guitarrón adds some darker shades and a deep, earthy pulse.

Titles such as ‘Like my Mother-in-law’ and ‘The Miserable Girl’ suggest songs Les Dawson might have sung and, indeed, there is a cheeky, irreverent side to this folk tradition. For anyone who has a fondness for chamamé, the sweet melodies and straightforwardness will have instant appeal; for those who find tango mordant or malevolent, an excursion to the pampas will be a balm to the soul. Smithsonian Folkways provide their usual standard-setting liner notes.