About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Mercedes Sosa is a warhorse on the world-music tour circuit; since her exile from Argentina's military regime in the late '70s, she's carried on singing songs of hope, revolution, and roots in Europe and everywhere else. As such, it's easy to underestimate the now 70-year-old singer. But Corazón Libre, her first studio album of the new century, is a jarring reminder of why this powerful woman remains such an international draw. With shrewd music direction by Chango Farías Gómez, the album puts her wind-hewn vocals up front, sparsely accompanied by violin, guitar, or simply the thudding bombo drum. Sosa specializes in the literate, roots-conscious music of Latin America's nueva canción movement of the '60s and '70s, an analog of America's coffeehouse culture -- but with much better poets. So a straining "El Olvidau" (The Forgotten One) tells the story of the invisible people on whose toils society depends, and Sosa belts it out to the martial beat of the bombo, the drum central to the rural dances of northeastern Argentina. The flip side are the humid boleros and milongas that comprise the Great Latin American Songbook. Sosa delivers these with intimate yearning, as on Marcelo Perea's "Lapachos en Primavera," where she is backed by solo guitar. Students of Latin American composers and poets will note that most of Corazón Libre's songs are from contemporary poets, giving the album a timely relevance. With this authoritative, engaging disc, Mercedes Sosa reminds fans across the globe that she remains a vital interpreter of common struggles and dreams, and her voice is still a world treasure. Mark Schwartz, Barnes & Noble

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