We had a blast playing at The Loft at City Winery for a brunch concert on Sunday. Thanks to Cristian Puig, who is from Argentina, I was inspired to try singing a chacarera for the first time. I was also vibing from my Argentinean roots on my mother's side....Chacareras have a vibrant rhythm that makes you want to clap and dance, just like flamenco! And it turns out that Guillermo Barrón, who played percussion with us, is quite a fountain of knowledge as far as LATIN American rhythms go in the extraordinary web of variants.

The more I studied this particular chacarera, which is called La Oncena (written by Eduardo Lagos & Juan Goñi), the more I came to appreciate the gorgeous poem within. My favorite verse is this one:

No me importa que no escuchen,

si no quieren escucharme;

mi cantar lo aprende el viento:

alguien habrá de heredarme.

(I don't mind that they don't listen, 

if don't want to listen to me;

my song will be studied by the wind:

someone must inherit me.)  

Another highlight of this show was the wine bottle with my name on it! Yes, they actually put a label with a photo that I love, taken by Darrin Reed during a performance with Sol y Sombra Flamenco Dance Company in Long Island. 

I'm still working on finding out whether we can keep offering this bottle to people interested. I would love to save the proceeds for a worthy cause involving music and young people in inner cities. 

I tried the wine just yesterday and it was EXQUISITE. I am verrry picky with my wines, and I do normally go for Malbec these days pretty much exclusively, but this was a Californian Syrah with a deep velvety characterful flavor, and I was genuinely impressed. 

So I will keep you posted about availability of the bottle but you must remember to save it and put a nice long stem rose in there every once in while :)