Sones Jarochos y Huastecos y Más

Everybody knows at least one son jarocho, even if they don’t realise it, and chances are they heard it while trying to discreetly fork a fast-cooling enchilada. But the version of ‘La Bamba’ by Mexican American family band, the Hermanos Herrera, might just manage to rescue it. Like the other jaroches and huastecos here, it’s raw, breathlessly danceable and impassioned in the way authentic roots songs must be. The six siblings – five men, one woman – playing Veracruz harp, double bass and Mexican regional variations of guitar and violin, have been around since the 1990s and play a tight set, harmonising perfectly and hitting the call-and-response falsettos on the infectious ‘La Huasanga’. A ranchera, ‘Anoche estuve llorando’ (Last Night I Was Weeping) slows things right down to a sorrowful sway, though the harp continues to tinkle away cherubically.

This is the Hermanos’ eighth album and their debut for the excellent Smithsonian Folkways (coming with the usual bilingual booklet inside). It makes for a fine introduction to a lean, likeable band.