El Curruchá

Venezuelan-Canadian singer-songwriter Eliana Cuevas has a stirring, see-through voice, perfect for communicating the nostalgia and warmth she feels for her homeland. For her sixth album she’s joined by guitarist Aquiles Báez, a household name in Venezuela who has worked with Paquito D’Rivera and Fareed Haque. Together, they perform a kind of slow, dreamy dance with voice and guitar through 13 traditional songs that evoke family life, rural traditions, love and longing.

The title-track features frantic guitar picking and hilariously rapid, tongue-twisting vocals by Cuevas. Even this comedic song freights feeling; it was a song her father, who died when she was 11, performed as a showstopper, plucking his cuatro and spitting out the words. Other songs are from the Venezuelan folk standards songbook. ‘Caballo Viejo’ is a classic joropo, and was the basis for the Gipsy Kings’ ‘Bamboléo’. ‘Maria Antonia’ is a wacky song about a loca woman who does odd things, like taking a shower on the table and sleeping in a laundry tub. ‘Aquel Zuliano’ is built around a percussive rhythm from Maracaibo called gaita, typically played at Christmas time. Báez contributes one song, the upbeat ‘San Rafael’, while Cuevas’ own ‘En Un Pedacito De Tu Corazón’ is reprised in a stripped-down form. Together, this is a quite lovely album, with some of the emotional power of Mercedes Sosa’s best songs but with a tropical lightness that quivers against the weight of exile and homesickness.