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 Lila Downs
La Cantina (Narada 09463-34248-2-1, 2006) Where her last two releases combined the confessional intimacy of Mexican
folkloric music with global seasonings,
Lila
Downs' latest finds her sticking considerably closer to the
possibilities of her half-Mexican heritage. The dominant ranchero
stylings of
La Cantina are bathed in a contemporary digital sheen,
but their rustic underpinnings remain. And anyone who's heard Downs sing knows
she's got the pipes to make this sort of thing work. Her voice is a most
remarkable instrument, injecting every song she sings with a startling emotional
range from tough as granite to delicate as mist.
The tracks on
La Cantina are pretty much evenly split between swaying ballads and stomping
dance songs, geared not only toward
Downs' full-bodied singing but also the
inventive arrangements concocted by
Downs and her main musical collaborator Paul
Cohen.
Plentiful acoustic guitar and accordion (some of the latter played by the
great Flaco Jimenez) lead into techno-splashed breaks, rumbling beats and
passages where the vocals are framed by background sounds suggestive of time and
place (i.e. the cantina of the title). Of course, no over-reliance on gimmicks
is needed, as
Downs proves on passionately unadorned songs like "La Noche de Mi
Mal." But when a modern day adventurousness is applied, such as on the
percolating "La Cumbia del Mole" and songs that combine foundational
instruments (harp, brass, etc.) with Downs' visionary outlook, this disc becomes
a truly absorbing masterpiece.
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