ALBUM
El Currucha (2021)
On her new album, El Curruchá featuring Aquiles Báez, renowned Venezuelan singer/songwriter Eliana Cuevas returns to her roots. Her sixth full-length release, El Curruchá is a nostalgic homage to the music Eliana grew up listening to in her homeland of Venezuela, prior to emigrating to Toronto with her family as a teenager.
The album features internationally-renowned guitarist/composer Aquiles Báez and the pairing of his fluent playing and Cuevas’s pure and versatile vocals is a match made in musical heaven. In a neat twist of fate, Eliana’s long-held dream to create such an album owes a great deal to Aquiles.
She explains that “it was many years ago that I listened to an album from a Venezuelan singer that was very well known there, Ilan Chester. He made a recording in 2001, Corazón Navideño, much like El Curruchá, with just voice and guitar, which, as it happens, was played by Aquiles Báez, way before I met him. This was an album I loved and listened to many times, and from there came a dream in the back of my mind that I’d love to do an album like this, with someone like Aquiles.”
The personal and musical empathy of the pair is audible in the warmth of the album. From mellow and soulful compositions to upbeat and witty numbers, Cuevas and Báez remain totally in sync. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than on the title track, one featuring fast and fluent guitar picking and almost impossibly speedy vocals from Eliana.
Track Listing
- Acidito (Adelis Fréitez)
- El Curruchá (Juan Bautista Plaza/Vicente Emilio Sojo)
- Flor de Mayo (Otilio Galíndez)
- Caballo Viejo (Simón Díaz)
- Caramba (Otilio Galíndez)
- Maria Antonia (José Ramón Villarroel)
- Tonada del Cabrestero (Simón Díaz)
- San Rafael (Aquiles Báez)
- Aquel Zuliano (Renato Aguirre)
- Mi Querencia (Simón Díaz)
- Anhelante (José Sifontes)
- En un Pedacito de tu Corazón (Eliana Cuevas)
- Como Llora una Estrella (Antonio Carillo)
Personnel
- Vocals – Eliana Cuevas
- Guitar – Aquiles Báez
Production Team
- Recorded by Jeremy Ledbetter at GMP Studios
- Executive Producer Eliana Cuevas
- Mixed by Damian Kearns
- Mastered by Peter Letros at Wreckhouse Mastering
- Photography by Jeremy Ledbetter
- Album Design by Kurt Firla
