¡Soy Salvadoreño!

For their latest musical discovery Smithsonian Folkways have unearthed Los Hermanos Lovos and their chanchona style of music from the rural margins of Eastern El Salvador. The style gets its name from the double bass – chanchona referring to the instruments’ physical similarity to a sow or female pig – and it’s this instrument that makes all the moves, constantly grooving, with a rhythmic infectiousness that makes it impossible to sit still. When united with a simple one-two beat and percussion ranging from a shaker to cow bell or conga, it’s impossible to ignore the similarity to cumbia. It’s the violin which sets chanchona apart, and rather than heighten the groove as the gaita or clarinet would do in cumbia, it instead brings out a yearning quality – with echoes of Balkan folk music – that reveals much of the history behind the music.

This is after all music from a country that has been plagued by war and poverty. The lyrics turn that suffering on its head, often referring to brief romances and the natural wonders of El Salvador, bringing out the joy and pride of the people. The album’s highlights come when these emotions surge into the music, such as the hard cumbia ‘La Salvadoreña, which tells of the beauty of Salvadorean women, or the fast-paced merengue ‘El Carnaval de San Miguel’. This is music that feels entrenched in its cultural and geographical surrounds, making ¡Soy Salvadoreño! as much social document as musical delight.