Live Radio
hide caption
Natalia Lafourcade celebrates Mexican son jarocho on her new album, Un Canto Para Mexico.
Manuel Zuñiga/Courtesy of the artistWe are in a defining moment for Natalia Lafourcade's career. For the last five years, she has embraced traditional folk music from Mexico and throughout Latin America. She also recorded with veteran musicians who played with the legendary ranchera singer Chavela Vargas — she brought Juan Carlos Allende and Miguel Peña to the Tiny Desk in 2017.
Her new album is a stunning musical statement that is both a celebration of Mexican folk music and just the right kind of musical balm we need these days. Un Canto Para Mexico celebrates son jarocho, a folk music from the Mexican gulf state of Veracruz. Initially, the project started as a benefit concert for a jarocho cultural center near Lafourcade's home, but it was immediately apparent that these songs should be recorded.
On this week's Alt.Latino, Lafourcade explains how son jarocho is a pathway not just to her own cultural and familial roots but also may just help us deal with the current world-wide crisis we are all living. That is a lot to expect from an album, but after listening to Un Canto Para Mexico repeatedly, those messages may just come right through your headphones and into your soul.
