What do you get when you mix North American folk music with the music of northeastern Brazil? The answer is found in the music of Matuto, a New York City-based band that blends these different musical styles beautifully. The band's name is Brazilian slang for "country bumpkin," a moniker chosen by guitarist and singer Clay Ross after extensive study in Recife, Brazil. Ross soon roped in a forró-loving master accordionist named Rob Curto and a few other players, and the band was born.

Matuto release its second album next week, but you can stream it right now, below. Plus, read a Q&A with Ross explaining how folk traditions from North America and Brazil relate, and find out where the devil lives in this music.

Matuto's The Devil and the Diamond, album stream to May 14, 2013. Tracklist

What initially attracted you to the music of northeastern Brazil?

I just loved the feeling of the music. The music of Hermeto Pascoal was an important bridge for me. I was deep into jazz music, studying bebop, and trying to play the guitar like Grant Green, Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino. I was always attracted to the Latin-influenced grooves I would hear on jazz records. I loved tracks like "Poinciana" by Ahmad Jamal, or Chet Baker's version of "Old Devil Moon." Hermeto's music has all of these compositional and improvisational ideas that I love, and his music is always built on these incredible grooves. As I learned more about these styles, and started to understand the vocabulary of folkloric Brazilian rhythms that inform his music, I just kept digging, and I'm still trying to emulate that feeling in my own way. Meanwhile, this search has led me to other, more traditional Brazilian artists that have become huge influences, like Jackson do Pandeiro or bands like Mestre Ambrosio.

How did the similarities between the music of northeastern Brazil and bluegrass reveal themselves to you?

At first, these similarities just came screaming out at me through the music. When I first heard a tune like "Voa Ilza" composed by Hermeto Pascoal, I heard a bluegrass fiddle tune. Now, I'm sure that this has everything to do with the fact that I grew up in South Carolina hearing bluegrass music and that this is my frame of reference, but I can hear it. This really sparked my curiosity and I began to investigate the shared story and colonial heritage of North and South America.

This often bloody collision of European, African, and Indigenous cultures in the "New World" has given us jazz, blues, bluegrass, baiao, forró, maracatu, chorinho and thousands of other musical styles. From this perspective, all "American" sounds are connected. Of course, the closer you get to a style and the deeper your understanding, the more you can defend its uniqueness. In Matuto, we are simply trying to create our own sound, from a perspective that transcends previously codified genres, but draws respectfully from the timeless thread of inspiration that gave birth to all American music.

Why do you think forró has had such a rise in popularity in the past few years? (Even Gilberto Gil’s latest album and tour is all forró music.)

Forró is also like bluegrass music in the sense that it was created by a masterful musician with a powerful personality. Luiz Gonzaga (the father of forró), like Bill Monroe (the father of bluegrass), was a virtuosic instrumentalist, a songwriting poet and a human being with persistent willpower and clarity of focus. I believe that forró is experiencing revived popularity in the same way as folk music in North America. I see it as a basic law of nature that these styles will perpetually cycle back into popular public consciousness. There is a simple universal truth in the essence of these American roots musics.

How do audiences in North America respond to your unique music, as compared to audiences in Brazil?

There is definitely a difference in the rhythmic vocabulary that's familiar to each audience. In Brazil, we can clap a syncopated rhythm and a huge crowd will fall right into the groove with us. In North America, we might simplify things. Either way, it's all good. We just want people to feel the music, to get involved, to move, and to dance. I especially want North American audiences to know that this music is accessible to them. It's not difficult, it's just unfamiliar.

Your parents have said they thought you’d grow up to be a preacher. How do they feel about what you’re doing now?

They are very proud of me and extremely supportive. They have both had steady, more traditional careers, so they are very enthusiastic about the fact that I've chosen to pursue something that I'm so passionate about. I know they appreciate the fact that I've been able to make this profession work for so long. More and more I think they actually enjoy the music!

How does your spiritual side reveal itself in your music?

For me, spirituality is about oneness. All great religions share this principle. From this perspective, the more we give, the more we receive, and through music, I've found an infinite wellspring of energy from which I can give freely. The simple act of making music brings me closer to oneness than anything else in life. My spirituality comes through my music in every way. My mission is to give the listener a little taste of the joy and peace that I feel while playing.

You describe the new album title as being about "wrestling the devil to find the diamond," but it would seem that in these musical traditions, the devil might also be an attractive character to embrace. How does the devil uncloak himself in your music?

Absolutely. This duality exists throughout The Devil and the Diamond. Musically, you can't have the light without the dark. Songs like "Drag Me Down" and "1000 to 3" give a balance to lighter songs like "The Way I Love You" and "Matuto Chant." One feeling complements the other.

The physical CD packaging for the album comes with an illustration for each song. For the song "1000 to 3," the illustration shows a profile of the Matuto character mirrored by the devil character. Their shoulders are connected and it clearly illustrates their oneness. So, I think you are absolutely right, it's important to embrace the devil, but it's also important to be aware of which side of oneself is influencing one's actions at any given moment.

You’ve said that the song “Diamond” is related to “Wayfaring Stranger.” Is “The Way I Love You” related to “In the Pines”?

Absolutely, you can definitely hear that when I start the line, "My girl, my girl…." We arrived at this sound in a very organic way, just having fun experimenting with the music. As we were learning all of these folkloric Brazilian styles and digging deep into the forró vocabulary, we would experiment and play songs like "East Virginia Blues" as a baiao. This just sounded great to us and we would joke, "That's Brazilian bluegrass."

With a song like "The Way I Love You," it's definitely an attempt to codify that discovery, to write a very traditional-sounding folk tune, but then to arrange it in a way that incorporates the Brazilian influences that we've adopted.

Nirvana also has a memorable version of "In the Pines":

What other old traditional songs influenced you?

"The Way I Love You" may be the only one with a very overt nod to an old traditional song. Still, I think in tunes like "Horse Eat Corn" or "Toco O Sino" you can hear a traditional approach in terms of song form and arrangement. We always look forward to feedback from other listeners. It's interesting to see what influences people perceive that may not have been our conscious intention.