When people speak of "americana," they're often speaking of rootsy music that incorporates folk traditions from Appalachia, the U.S. South and West--but often they don't think of the Southwest. Or even further south.

Cuñao Rayuela (Ides of March)

L.A.-based Cuñao blends some classic "American" folk sounds into a much broader base of acoustic music that reaches pretty much all the way to Tierra del Fuego. Cumbia is much more recognizable to the general public today, but there are many more South American elements here as well. What impresses me is not so much the breadth of the palette as the way it has been blended to seamlessly.

A couple of these songs venture close to Hank Williams territory. The instrumentation and color might be different, but there are plenty of echoes in the structure. And Cuñao has such a strong sense of its identity that all of these songs with their disparate elements are indisputably the product of this, and only this, band.

Technical and musicographical ideas aside, this album is a treat for the ears. It is bright, funny, sad and evocative. And then some. If Cuñao isn't at the height of its powers with this album, I can only gape in amazement. There are no words (in any language) to do this album justice. Spectacular.

Jon Worley