La Bruja Salguero and Lula Bertoldi, two of the most powerful voices in Argentine popular music, came together to create a live songbook that combines folk songs and rock and show that they are two aesthetics with a lot in common. common.
Together, La Bruja and Lula go on tour that, this weekend, will stop in this part of the country with shows, this Friday, at 8 p.m., at the Camping Musical de Bariloche; tomorrow, Saturday, at 9 p.m., at Espacio Trama in San Martín de los Andes; and on Sunday, at 9 p.m., at the Cipolletti Cultural Complex (see separate).
Different, but together, they put on an exquisite, intimate, intense, “buddy” show, along with Julieta Lizzoli, on piano and backing vocals; and Jose Torelli on guitar.
United by a telephone that crossed (them), Lula and La Bruja exchanged collaborations until giving shape to this proposal in which both abandon their comfort zones to inhabit each other’s and offer exquisite versions of popular music, by Mercedes Sosa and Daniel Toro to Luis Alberto Spinetta and Charly García, among others.
Story of a meeting
Three moments appear in this common story that both musicians have been building. Bertoldi and Salguero met in 2019, when the Riojan singer invited Eruca Sativa to be part of her show at the Cosquín Festival that year. “A very beautiful friendship was born from that meeting,” says The Witch, nicknamed that way since her teenage years. In March of that year, there was a second meeting, this time only with Lula and at the Torcuato Tasso in San Telmo.
The third was not long ago, in a recording studio, to record the collaboration of the Eruca guitarist on La Bruja’s latest album, “Mujer de albahaca”, released last April. The song in question is “Los amanídos”, the beautiful composition by Ramiro González. And between the two, Gabriel Pedernera, of course: the drummer of Eruca Sativa is the producer of “Mujer de albahaca”.
That Coscoíno meeting led Lula Bertoldi to delve deeper into the culture of northern Argentina but, especially, the culture of Rioja, its women, its poetry. And from there, with stops, to the brand new album by La Bruja Salguero. “I saw Lula’s love, passion for the culture and history of northern Argentina and when he learned about everything that was from La Rioja, when he learned about works like the Riojan cantata, he loved it, he was passionate about it, we exchanged books and it’s like that What I said when recording this new album ‘I love Lula’, we are going to update her on everything we did, we are going to go for a new one and since she likes the history of La Rioja, she What are the struggles, all types of struggle and in this case the federal struggles, it was then that I decided to invite her to sing this chacarera by Ramiro González, and it is part of a cantata dedicated to the struggle of the caudillos.
In a telephone conversation with RÍO NEGRO Diarydays before embarking on a trip to Patagonia, María de los Ángeles Salguero, honored with the 2015 Platinum Konex Award as the Best Folklore Singer of the Decade, Consecration of the 2017 Cosquín Festival and Gardel Award in 2017 with her album “ Norte”, told how about her relationship with Lula Bertoldi, how the songbook of one influenced the other and how this exchange opened doors to their respective audiences.
La Bruja Salguero mentions Mercedes Sosa as the alma mater of her union with Lula. “I think we have had a great teacher, a great guide for all the singers of Argentina, who was our beloved Mercedes, who already taught us about opening borders, about kicking down walls and about being all together.”
Without borders there are no genres and everything seems to happen within that universe called popular music. And this is how Lula Bertoldi, who is one of the most powerful rock singers, puts her voice and her energy to a zamba, a chacarera, a vidala chayera. While La Bruja addresses a type of song that, although born from rock, has a lot in common with the folk song that she usually performs. Thus, jewels such as “Barro perhaps”, by the aforementioned Spinetta, or “Zona de promises”, by Soda Stereo, appear in this show.
Speaking of zones, as it is also about getting out of that comfort zone, La Bruja knows that she has to sing (at least) one of posta rock: “I’m choosing it,” she says between laughs. “I’m choosing it at this moment to try to go to that place, but the truth is that the debut of that song is going to be precisely there in the south because what we did now was another repertoire, works dedicated to women and now we are like to another list.”
The first show was made up of songs that functioned as a tribute to Argentine women, but, in particular, to a Rioja woman. It was that songbook that captivated Lula, Salguero will say at one point during the conversation with this newspaper. “Now, after a while, we are resuming this beautiful show, with new songs. “It is a mix between Argentine folklore and rock.”
Q: What did you find between you to think that there could be something you could do together, beyond those meetings, between the stage and the studio?
A: I think that among the artists we know each other, we know what language we are using and in my case with Eruca, with Lula, with Gabriel Pedernera even, who is the musical director of my latest album, by Brenda (Martin), his roots and that love they have towards what is fundamental, towards what is the poetry of Argentine music and above all. We connected that time through phones that we crossed. Thus began a nice talk to begin to see what we were going to do in that Cosquín Folklore and even what we were going to do in the future.
Q: What is this new repertoire made of?
A: We have zambas, classics of Argentine folklore that have marked a strong era such as “When I Have the Land”, Daniel Toro and Ariel Petrocelli. Afterwards, of course, we are going to go to the La Rioja side, also leading our chayeras, chacareras lives. I’m also going to play a little bit about this new album of mine that came out recently, Mujer de albahaca, we’re going to play a couple of chacareras from there like “Los amanídos”, a work dedicated to Chacho Peñaloza. Then we will go to the rock side with Spinetta, Charly, Pedro Aznar, Fito Páez and his “I come to offer my heart”, and Eruca Sativa, of course, with “Amor absent”.
Q: It seems that there is something that goes beyond the musical when two artists decide to come together, what was there between you that made the meeting finally work?
A: The truth is that there is something that is apart from everything and that is what usually happens in these cases. I have had many encounters that work at a certain level but in which what makes it special does not always happen. I can mention, for example, my meeting with Bruno Arias, which was very similar to what happened with Lula, a language that goes far beyond the palpable. It is something that has to do with energies, with your way of thinking and with your way of feeling life, with your way of walking, everything that has to do with our identity. I think that is the part that unites us most and that attracts me the most to her. And with respect to the vocal issue, they unify very well, we can make that connection that is so difficult many times, right? Because being two solo voices, and this is what used to happen to me with Bruno, each one has its own presence, its special magic, but, when it comes to going to a duet it’s like you have to erase everything, you have to erase absolutely everything that you bring from before and connect yourself to the other person, to the other voice.
Beyond this, it has to do with the soul, with what it feels, with what it believes that we are going that way, to accommodate the vibratos of the voice, the intensity and we achieve it. There are songs, for example, “Absent Love”, by Eruca Saticva, where something more mystical is created, very beautiful, by the way. And it also leads me, of course, to turn me on because, just as in rock, within folklore we also have our very powerful part, such as the chacareras, such as our vidalas chayeras. It’s very nice what is achieved and hearing Lula sing zamba, well, that’s another plan too (laughs).
“I have always liked being able to show all the aspects of Argentine music.”
The Witch Salguero
Q: Did you feel from the beginning that things were going to work?
A: In reality, it was a first meeting that we had done and everything went very well thanks to the association of the public and our energy. I think that’s it too, right? Because when you rehearse, well, there is like a time, a color, but when you go live it’s something else, that’s when you really reveal what you are. When it was that first meeting, the merging thing happened even more and that’s how another show and another and another began to come out… and here we are (laughs).
Q: And obviously the meeting between the two worked because everything was very nice, but if there is no public approval, there is no worthwhile fusion, right?
A: Oh yeah! That’s right, she liked it. And well, the beauty of all this is that our audiences mix. That’s good, isn’t it? I have always liked being able to show all the aspects of Argentine music. And with this show we cover all this rhythm, all this poetry and we also cross paths with other styles, so that is wonderful.
The Witch + Lula, on tour in the South
Friday the 14th, at 8pm, at Camping Musical (Av. Bustillo Km 25- Llao Llao, Bariloche). Tickets on sale at evenbrite.com.ar.
Saturday the 15th, at 9pm, in Espacio Trama, in San Martín de los Andes. Tickets on sale at the venue’s box office and at Entradaweb.
Sunday 16th, at 9pm, at the Cipolletti Cultural Complex (Fernández Oro 57). Tickets on sale at
Flipper (Neuquén), Nikel (Cipolletti) and by tuentrada.com system
