Sound Travels: New World Music Parte Dos

First, Ana Moura whose fourth album, Leva-me aos fados (Take Me to a Fado House), finds this next generation Portuguese fadista in full bloom. Fado as is a graceful yet mournful, all-acoustic tradition that delivers the depths of love failed and always move on the chord of desperate longing. Moura’s rich, exquisitely bittersweet alto is breathtaking in its strong yet aching vulnerability. She often decides which songs to sing on the spot and her connection to the Moment gives life to her fado,every melody with lyrics that cut to the core. Whether facing down a triumphant rival (Caso Arrumado – A Settled Affair) in a duel of fadistas (as they are called), dodging doom-inflected omens (Como uma nuvem no céu – Like A Cloud In The Sky), or weeping in solitude at day’s end (A Penumbra – Dusk), dark and passionate and all that I love about fado and of Portugal.