Spain in my Heart - España en mi corazón
17 nuevas grabaciones de canciones de la Guerra Civil española de grandes músicos internacionales
Noviembre 2003

http://www.appleseedrec.com/spaininmyheart/

Spain in my Heart
Songs of the Spanish Civil War

17 new recordings by An International Roll Call of Great Musicians Commemorate a Struggle Against Fascism that Failed

Listado de canciones - S o n g l i s t

Jarama Valley - Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger
En La Plaza De Mi Pueblo - Michele Greene
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade - John McCutcheon
Asturias - Guardabarranco
El Quinto Regimiento - Lila Downs
The Bantry Girls' Lament - Aoife Clancy
García y Galán - Uxía
Los Cuatro Generales - Joel & Jamaica Rafael
Llegó Con Tres Heridas - Eliseo Parra
Noche Nochera - Guardabarranco
Viva La Quinte Brigada - Shay Black & Aoife Clancy
Si Me Quieres Escribir - Quetzal
Tú Que Brillas - Michele Greene
Los Marineros - Uxía
Peat Bog Soldiers - Laurie Lewis
Viva La Quince Brigada - Quetzal
Taste of Ashes - Laurie Lewis


The idealistic appeal of 'fighting the good fight' against the fascist troops of General Francisco Franco as he waged war against Spain's democratically elected government drew more than 45,000 volunteer soldiers from over 50 countries during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The influx of so many cultures that formed the five International Brigades helped create a canon of war-related songs sung by the freedom fighters and revived during the American folk boom of the Fifties, even as the victorious Franco ruled Spain for four brutal decades.

Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War presents 17 new recordings of vintage and recent songs inspired by the conflict and performed by an international roster of musicians as diverse as the volunteer brigades and the Spanish Republican army they came to assist. The United States is represented by folk's activist icon Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, master instrumentalist and vocalist John McCutcheon, East L.A.'s Quetzal, the bluegrass-based singer and fiddler Laurie Lewis, American/Nicaraguan/Mexican singer-songwriter-actress Michele Greene, and father and daughter Joel and Jamaica Rafael of the Joel Rafael Band. Mexico is represented by vocalist Lila Downs, whose Latin jazz influences have expanded to include the passionate folklore of her country's music. From Nicaragua comes Guardabarranco, the sister-and-brother duo of Katia and Salvador Cardenal. The Irish volunteers for this project are solo artist Aoife Clancy, formerly of Cherish the Ladies, and Shay Black of The Black Family. And Spain itself is represented by two of its leading contemporary singer-songwriters, Eliseo Parra and Uxía. Many of these artists recorded their songs for the project in studios around the world, with overdubs and mixing taking place in California.

The songs and performances on Spain in My Heart, many of them in Spanish, form a mosaic of surprisingly delicate and moving emotions. Rather than emulating the stridence and chaos of battle, the project's Bay Area-based co-producers, Heather Rose Bridger and Joe Weed, sought musicians and material that would convey some of the more subtle aspects of the conflict. The yearning for simpler or better times by the Spanish Republican soldiers and their families is portrayed in 'Asturias,' performed by Guardabarranco, and 'En La Plaza De Mi Pueblo' and 'Tú Que Brillas,' both sung by Michele Greene. Aoife Clancy's version of 'The Bantry Girls' Lament' captures the longing for distant loved ones fighting in Spain from an Irish perspective. 'Llegó Con Tres Heridas,' performed by Eliseo Parra and written by Spanish poet Miguel Hernández, who died at 31 from the tuberculosis he contracted in one of Franco's political prisons, reminds us that the three most important things in existence are life, love and death, all of equal significance. 'Noche Nochera,' also performed by Guardabarranco, was adapted from a poem by the renowned Federico García Lorca, and quietly communicates the unsettling post-war presence of Franco's SS-styled Guardia Civil, his 'enforcers.'

The war itself and the bravery and determination of the anti-fascist forces are directly addressed in many other songs here. 'Jarama Valley,' adapted from the familiar 'Red River Valley' by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Lee Hays, is performed on Spain in My Heart by Seeger himself (spoken vocals, banjo) and Woody's son, Arlo Gurthrie (lead vocals). One of the best-remembered Spanish Civil War songs, 'Los Cuatro Generales,' is sung in English and Spanish by Joel and Jamaica Rafael. John McCutcheon's chance encounter with a Spanish Civil War vet inspired his composition 'The Abraham Lincoln Brigade,' which was the name of the battalion in which thousands of Americans fought Franco's army. 'El Quinto Regimiento,' recorded by Lila Downs, and 'Viva La Quince Brigada,' performed by Quetzal, salute the soldiers of the International Brigades. The CD's closing song, 'Taste of Ashes,' heartbreakingly sung by Laurie Lewis, was written by former Country Joe and the Fish bassist Bruce Barthol and Edward Barnes, both of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, which produced 'SPAIN '36' at a Los Angeles theater on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War.

The inspiration for the Spain in My Heart project came from executive producer Heather Rose Bridger's initial encounters with Spanish Civil War veteran Milt Wolff and other former Abraham Lincoln Brigade soldiers in the Bay Area, where the vets reunite each year. She accompanied Wolff (described by Ernest Hemingway as 'as brave and as good a soldier as any that commanded battalions at Gettysburg') and his fellow veterans on a trip to Cuba in 1993, acting as their interpreter. The veterans' commitment to activism has kept them involved in social justice movements in Cuba, South Africa and elsewhere.

Bridger, a singer and percussionist with the California-based Latin folk group Grupo Germinal, and co-producer/musician/recording artist Joe Weed recognized that the last generations of the war's participants were passing into the mist of history. In Spain, the Spanish Civil War is currently a popular historical subject now because it was a forbidden topic for so long, and, as Weed says, 'The candle is flickering before it goes out. People there want to cleanse their souls, or to find out what happened to their Uncle Charlie.' Bridger elaborates, 'In spite of the Lincoln Brigade members coming home to face blacklists and harassment for being 'premature anti-fascists, the Spanish people were those who really suffered, and continued to do so for forty years. Our remembrance of their songs is not to glorify a tragic struggle, even one we consider 'a good fight,' but to honor their sacrifices and remind ourselves of the senseless loss and pain brought on by war. The Spanish people are finally trying to come to terms with this painful legacy, to uncover the real stories of loss and tragedy, and to achieve some kind of closure.'

Spain in My Heart will be recognized around the world as an important multi-media document of a war that the 'good guys' lost. Filled with songs and emotions that transcend any language barrier, illuminated by a 24-page booklet packed with historical notes, archival posters and photos, and artists' biographies, Spain should introduce new generations to a crucial period in our global past that is in danger of being forgotten. And, as we see in the news every day, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Let us learn that flaunting of international law and aggression by great military powers against more defenseless adversaries is not a divine right but a curse to be exorcised.