Deejaying in the clubs can have its downside. Everything becomes focused on seeking out music that has the maximum get-up-and-shake-yer-ass value. It's times like this htat we suddenly realized we don't take enough time to listen to acoustic music. But fortunately for us, and everyone else, the new compilation Acoustic Brazil (Putumayo) has all the remedies in hand!

Gal Costa's sublime "Aquele Frevo Axe" brought on a huge bout of saudade, longing for Brazil. The jazzy conventions do incredibly beautiful things with the elastic vocal chords of this legendary singer. This immaculately recorded bossa nova written by Caetano Veloso and Cezar Mendes spearheaded her 1998 critically acclaimed album by the same name.

Brazilians can go hard, incredibly hard -- there's nothing quite as heavy metal as the din of 400 drummers playing samba in a Rio carnival parade -- yet when Brazilian music goes downtempo, it is with incredible grace and intellect. The pearl of this compilation is the second track: When Paulinho da Viola sings "Meu Samba e a Voz do Povo" (My samba is the voice of the people), he is singing the people's story: the poor, the artists, those who suffered repression under the military dictatorship. This song was written and recorded for the tribute album for legendary Northeastern lyricist Joao do Vale (whom we had the pleasure of meetin shortly before he passed away in 1996). In the metaphor of the "flowr that the wind cast to the ground," this song exemplifies the fascination trend in Brazilian music (created by censorship) of writing lyrics full of criticism of the government and status quo, cleverly encased in giria (slang) and extended metaphors.