Música caipira, the music style that has its origins in the Brazilian countryside, somewhere around 1920, has a vague resemblance with Mexican ranchera music and Paraguayan guaranias – it is also sung by a performer with a guitar (although in Brazil they normally come in pairs) and deals with love drama, nostalgia, and rural life.
In the last twenty years, it got increasingly influenced by American country music and was re-baptized as música sertaneja, which is hugely popular in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul. Electric guitars were introduced and cowboy uniform was adopted by groomed, rich looking lead singers. Sertanejos Zezé di Camargo and Luciano even got a Latin Grammy Award last year, for their Double Face CD.
But before the boom of sertanejos, there was the real deal – roots caipira music. Here are some wonderful classics:
Chitãozinho and Xororó – Saudades da minha terra
Almir Sater – Comitiva Esperança
Sérgio Reis – Menino da Porteira
Cacique and Pagé
Liu and Léu – Boiadeiro Errante
Alvarenga and Ranchinho singing the love story of a skeleton couple in a cemetery.
Raul Torres and Florêncio
Tibagi and Miltinho