World Circuit: Guillermo Portabales — El Carretero (Audio CD)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: World Circuit
• Artist: Guillermo Portabales
• Title: El Carretero
• Compilation Year: 1996
• UPC: 769233004321
• Catalog Number: WCD043
• Genre: World, Latin
• Style: Guajira, Cuban son, bolero, guaracha
• Condition: New / Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Tracks: 16
• Instrumentation: Spanish guitar, double bass, congas, vocals
• Licensed from: Gema Records, Puerto Rico
• Packaging: digipak sleeve

Overview

Guillermo Portabales is one of the great voices of Cuban country music, and El Carretero is the ideal introduction. World Circuit — the label behind the Buena Vista Social Club — gathers sixteen of his finest recordings into a single, irresistibly warm collection.

Portabales invented the "guajira de salón," a refined, city version of Cuba's rural country style, and you hear its charm everywhere here. His easy, flowing voice rides over Spanish guitar, double bass and congas in songs like the title track "El Carretero," "Nostalgia Guajira" and the wistful "Cuando Salí de Cuba."

The repertoire mixes his own compositions with classics by Ñico Saquito, Eliseo Grenet and others, ranging across guajira, bolero, son and guaracha. It's music of the Cuban countryside — sunlit, nostalgic and quietly virtuosic.

Long beloved across Latin America and West Africa, Portabales's recordings have a timeless appeal. For fans of Buena Vista Social Club and classic Cuban music, this is an essential and deeply enjoyable disc.

Interesting Facts

• Guillermo Portabales (1911–1970) was the Cuban creator of the "guajira de salón," a polished urban take on traditional country music.
• He developed his signature style early in his career in Santiago de Cuba and became one of Latin music's most admired singer-guitarists.
• His recordings remained in constant demand across Latin America and West Africa long after his death.
• This compilation appears on World Circuit, the label famous for launching the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon.
• The album features classic compositions by Cuban masters such as Ñico Saquito and Eliseo Grenet alongside Portabales's own songs.
• Portabales died in a traffic accident in Puerto Rico in 1970, but his easy, melodic style has kept his music alive for generations.

Track Listing

1. El Carretero (Portabales)
2. Cumbiamba (Portabales)
3. Junto a un Cañaveral (Rosendo Ruíz)
4. Nostalgia Guajira (Portabales)
5. Tristeza Guajira (R. Cabrera)
6. Yo te Canto Puerto Rico (J. López)
7. Lamento Cubano (Eliseo Grenet)
8. Guateque Campesino (Celia Romero)
9. Oye mi Son (Ñico Saquito)
10. Al Vaivén de mi Carreta (Ñico Saquito)
11. Voy a Santiago a Morirme (Guillermo Villarronda)
12. Romance Guajiro (Celia Romero)
13. El Amor de mi Bohío (Julio Brito)
14. El Arroyo que Murmura (J. Anckerman)
15. Cuando Salí de Cuba (Luis Aguile)
16. Flor de Amor (Traditional)

Publishers

This compilation released 1996 by World Circuit Records, London (catalog WCD043), under license from Gema Records, Puerto Rico.

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