Music soothes the savage beast: A geografía lesson

Joe Vasconcellos in concert. (Image via Harbourfront Centre)

This week’s blog post on music will feature several songs with geographic locations in the title. We start with a song from Kristin Hersh, who is best known for her time as lead singer of alt rock group Throwing Muses. As NPR notes, her solo career dipped into different styles of music though her most recent incarnation is as the head of punk rock group 50 Foot Wave. “Costa Rica” comes from her 1999 album Sky Motel which CNN said was “the first time she felt that she had control over her songs, rather than the other way around”.

• Kristin Hersh – Costa Rica

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are an Argentine group who is one of the biggest names in rock en español. Their heyday was in the early- to mid-1990s though the group continues to perform today. Their lead singer- Vicentico- recently released a critically acclaimed solo record. Anyway, “Arde Buenos Aires” comes from 1991 and it’s a delightful, toe-tapping blend of ska and salsa.

• Los Fabulosos Cadillacs – Arde Buenos Aires

We’ve featured Manu Chao before and described him as an “eclectic and critically acclaimed artist” in June 2006. His French/Galician/Basque background comes through in his music which dabbles in many different genres and, therefore, makes it difficult to describe in few words. Listen to “Welcome To Tijuana” and you’ll hear what I mean.

• Manu Chao - Welcome To Tijuana

Alfredo Gutierrez is one of the best vallenato musicians in the world, beyond a shadow of a doubt. His musical career has spanned nearly half a century, and it has been one filled with lots of recognition and success. I’m not a 100% sure if his song “Festival en Guarare” has to do with a folkloric festival in Panama, though if any of you know I would appreciate it if you could leave a comment.

• Alfredo Gutierrez - Festival en Guarare

The Lilys are a much underrated indie rock band based in Washington, DC who- much like most of the above-mentioned musicians- are very eclectic and varied in their musical styles. “The Night Sun Over San Juan” comes from their 2006 album Everything Wrong Is Imaginary and the song was accurately described as having “a charming sloppiness to the execution” by floodwatchmusic.com.

• Lilys - The Night Sun Over San Juan

Lastly on our geographical jaunt through music is “La Joya Del Pacifico” by Chilean singer/songwriter Joe Vasconcellos. He is a musician that is not very well known outside of South America, though he is one of his country’s most popular performers. World Music Central describes Joe Vasconcellos as embodying “the essence of what is today's ‘world music’” and this song is his ode to the tropical beauty that is Valparaiso “de mi amor.” Thus, a fitting end to this list.

• Joe Vasconcellos - La Joya Del Pacifico

Links- Wikipedia, NPR, CNN, Fabulosos Cadillacs, Rock.com.ar, YouSendIt, ManuChao.net, The Latin Americanist, Bonnaroo, La Vallenata, ColArte, Guarare.com, floodwatchmusic.com, Yahoo! Music, JoeVasconcellos.cl, World Music Central, Tierramérica