COLOMBIA • LLANEROS SONGS OF CASANARE

The Llano covers parts of both Colombia and Venezuela. Its half a million square kilometers of hot, flat savannah, are the home of two and a half million cowherders. These Llaneros, characterized by freedom, valor and selfsufficiency love above all their horses, their land, feasts, wine and singing. On the trail, in the work in the fields, the singing is the call of the cabrestero; nearby, in the farmyard, it is milking song, cante de ordeño. In community it is a celebration, joropo, with meat, wine, poetry and music: golpes, pasajes, pajarillos, contrapunteos, corridos accompanied by stringed instruments: cuatro, bandola, bandolón, bandolín.
These field recordings were collected between 1995 and 2003 in the department of Casanare which has preserved most of its oral heritage.