FLAGSTAFF — Artists associated with Border Songs — a double CD of music and spoken word, in English and Spanish — will give a benefit concert for the southern Arizona humanitarian group, No More Deaths / No Más Muertes at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25 at the Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff.
The concert will feature Nicaraguan New Song vocalist Katia Cardenal.
“This is an incredible opportunity to hear one of Latin America’s foremost folk singers,” said Robert Neustadt, the album’s co-producer. “This will be a beautiful evening. We will join together as a community to think about, and help, people in dire need. We will share a eclectic mix of different voices and styles—and to top it all off, we will hear Katia Cardenal’s mesmerizing New Song vocals.”
No More Deaths / No Más Muertes is a volunteer group that provides humanitarian aid to migrants in the Arizona desert and to recently deported people on the Mexican side of the border). Since the album was released on Oct. 12, 2012, the project has raised nearly $40,000 through CD sales, concerts and donations. Border Songs was honored as an “Album of Merit” and “Humanitarian Album of 2012” by the Global Music Awards.
Flagstaff artists to perform in this concert include m. henry (Matt Hall), who contributed the animal fable “What Coyote Brought” to the album; Pachuco & Classik, who donated a hip hop song in Spanish entitled “Somos Mexicanos” (We are Mexicans), a song that describes the experience of living in the US without documents; and co-producer, Robert Neustadt whose song “Voluntary Return” tells the stories of people who have been deported. Tucson-based banjo player / songwriter, Ted Warmbrand, will also perform. Warmbrand’s song on the album, “Who’s the Criminal Here?,” was inspired by the arrest (later overturned) of two No More Deaths volunteers in 2005. The song has become an anthem in activist communities across the country.
The above-mentioned Arizona-based artists will perform one set, and will then turn the stage over to the evening’s featured performer, Katia Cardenal, formerly lead vocalist of the world-renowned Nicaraguan New Song group, Guardabarranco whose beautiful song, “Canción pequeña” (mp3 audio attached here) is also on the Border Songs album.
Admission: A suggested voluntary donation of $6, or the purchase of a Border Songs CD ($20). No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Each Border Songs CD purchased will provide 29 gallons of water for people in extreme need.
All proceeds from the concert, and album sales, will be donated to No More Deaths / No Más Muertes.
About Katia Cardenal:
Considered by many to be the most important and prolific Nicaraguan female singer today, Cardenal has recorded 22 albums, 10 solo, and 12 as a member of Guardabarranco. Her 1999 Gold record, “Navegas por las costas” (Sail along the Coast) has sold over 100,000 copies in Norway.
A bilingual singer, Katia recorded with Jackson Browne on his album Looking East (1996), and with the great Cuban singer/ songwriter Silvio Rodríguez on her 2003 album, Sueño de una noche verano (I’m Dreaming of a Summer Night). She also recorded a Pete Seeger song, never recorded by Seeger himself, on a tribute album to him entitled, If I Had a Song (2001). Her rendition of Salvador Cardenal’s song, “Dame Tu Corazón” (Give Me Your Heart) won her a prestigious OTI award on Telemundo’s International Music Festival.
Cardenal has performed around the world in Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama, El Salvador, Canada, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Chile, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and the United States. In the 1990s, Guardabarranco toured twenty states and appeared fifty times in this country, twice on National Public Radio (“Mountain Stage” and “Latino USA”).
In 2012, Katia Cardenal donated the Guardabarranco song, “Canción pequeña” (Little Song) for use on the Flagstaff-produced CD, Border Songs. This little song, like much of Cardenal’s work, calls for the transcendence of nature and humanity over political conflict: “Hace falta borrar las fronteras/ La primavera no lleva documentos para pasar la aduana, (We need to erase the borders / Spring does not carry documents to go through customs)” sings Katia Cardenal, in this chillingly beautiful song. The song ends by calling for us to transcend national divisions and come together in one world: “All the flags should be woven together with so much cloth that they make one great sail for just one world.”
Katia Cardenal has shared the stage with Jackson Browne, Melissa Etheridge, Mercedes Sosa, Nancy Griffith, Bruce Cockburn, Pablo Milanés, Miriam Makeba, Inti-Illimani, Daniel Viglietti, Holly Near, John McCutheon, Pete Seeger and many more.
Katia’s brother and musical partner from Dúo Guardabarranco, Salvador Cardenal, passed away in 2010. She is currently touring with her daughter, Nina Cardenal, who will accompany her on guitar. This will be the first time Katia Cardenal has performed in Flagstaff in nearly 20 years, when she performed with her brother as Guardabarranco at the Coconino Center for the Arts.
For more information, contact Robert Neustadt at bordersongscd@gmail.com