Song about a 'boliche' (inn) called Balderrama well known for folkloric jam sessions in Salta, Argentina with the refrain 'Where will we go (to drink/sing) if Balderrama fades' as in where will we continue our revelry if the lights go out.

Made famous by Benicio del Toro's 'Che' films as the inn is used as a metaphor for Che Guevara as a 'lonely star' we are following and will be lost without.

Boliches and peñas (music sharing/jam sessions) were the mainstay of political organising in the socialist movements of the 60s in Latin America.

Original by Lenguizamón and Castilla, inspired by the popular version by Mercedes Sosa.

Balderrama

Song by Simón Díaz made famous by Caetano Veloso
Arranged, translated and performed by Alex Etchart
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I see a purple heron fighting her way upstream at dusk
That's how you fall in love
That's how you fall in love my heart with your heart
That's how you fall in love

Moon, moon
Moon, full moon
Full moon that's waning
Moon full full moon
That's waning

Won't you head to the ranch and fetch my rifle my dear
To shoot this hawk that's been eating all our chickens my dear

The moon is staring at me I don't know what she sees
My clothes are all clean I only washed them yester-eve

Moon, moon
Moon, full moon
Full moon that's waning
Moon full full moon
That's waning

Tonada de la Luna Llena

For all people living undocumented, going through detention, fear of detention, deportation or fear of deportation.

This acoustic edition was commissioned for the Solidarity Tapes by Our Future Now, youth group alongside Global Justice Now.

Written from a chant I improvised at a demo in Chelmsford for the Stansted 15 with some incredible musicians including @LittleTrumpet. We didn't know if our friends would go to jail and needed some song and movement to uplift us in those dark moments.

Our friends have been convicted under terror legislation for laying their bodies down to stop a deportation flight forcibly sending 56 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. As a result of the action 11 people were able to get emergency injunctions to not be deported and were able to remain with their families and friends. The government continues to shamelessly deport people despite the windrush scandal evidencing the colonial hypocrisy of this and panorama exposing the horrific conditions in detention centres.

This conviction threatens the very basic right of civil disobedience to protect others. Further defining anyone against the status quo as terrorists.

The last section comes from a chant I made for an eco-village in north eastern Uruguay when I was 18.

Shine (No Human is Illegal)

“Taking a page from folk singers from Woody Guthrie to David Rovics, their poetry is urgent and unapolagetically critical of the world as we know it, and unflinching in its call to unfuck-it-up, with a solid dose of heart and humour.” - Steph Dogfoot Chan – Singaporean National Slam Poetry Champion

Alex Etchart

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