Santa Marta - Kingston - New Orleans

Carlos Vives took three cities that on the map seem distant but in the rhythm become close: Santa Marta, Kingston, and New Orleans come together in this song as if the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico shared the same beach. It's not just a geographical journey, but a blend of sounds that the artist brought to the studio so the acoustic guitar and the accordion could mix with the winds of a band that sounded like a street party. The result is a track that doesn't ask permission to sound traditional, yet it feels fresh as if it had been recorded on any corner of the coast.

The recording of El rock de mi pueblo —the album that contains it— was completed in August 2004, and this particular track was born from the idea of uniting three places that, despite being separated by thousands of kilometers, share something in common: the flavor of the music that rises from the sea and from the people who live by it. There are no overloaded arrangements here; the weight lies in how the melody is sustained between the strumming of the guitar and the choruses that repeat the names of the cities as if they were an incantation. It lasted three minutes and fifty-one seconds, but within that time, more stories fit than in many entire albums.