merci!

me encanta, muy tranquillo

me tranquillo

y me encanta tambien.

me encanta

muy buena musica para bailar

This composition by Guillermo Portables is a typical guajira (country lament) from the east of Cuba, a style which is very popular in West Africa. Sometimes known as the Cuban ‘blues’ it is, in fact, derived from the Spanish tradition. Eliades Ochoa is the song’s perfect interpreter. A close associate of the guajira maestro Nico Saquito, who was Portabales mentor, Eliades is deeply immersed in tradition and wears his cowboy hat to identify himself as a country man. Born in Santiago into a whole family of guitarists and singers, he first picked up the instrument at the age of six. As a youth he was a familiar sight playing guitar in brothels and bars around Santiago and by the early 1970’s he was a regular at Santiago’s celebrated music club ‘Casa de la Trova’. In 1978 he took over the renowned Cuarteto Patria, a group which has existed in some shape or form since 1940. Like Compay Segundo he plays a self-made hybrid of guitar and tres, doubling the D and G strings of a standard six string guitar.

Por el camino del sitio mio
Un carretero alegre paso
Con sus canciones que de muy sentida
Y muy guajira alegre canto:
Me voy al transbordador
A descargar la carreta
Me voy al transbordador
A descargar la carreta
Para cumplir con la meta
De mi pequena labor.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.

Yo trabajo sin reposo
Para poderme casar
Yo trabajo sin reposo
Para poderme casar
Y si lo llego a lograr
Sere un guajiro dichoso.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.

Yo soy guajiro y carretero
Que soy guajiro y carretero
Y en el campo vivo bien
Porque el campo es el eden
Mas lindo del mundo entero.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.
A caballo vamos pa'l monte.
Chapea el monte, cultiva el llano
Recoge el fruto de tu sudor.
Chapea el monte, cultiva el llano
Recoge el fruto de tu sudor.