NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Country twang, Brazilian flow

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

With last week's best-of show behind us, we've got a clean slate to dive into our favorite new music kicking off the second half of the year. Felix brings a batch of country tracks, while Ana -- to absolutely no one's surprise -- continues her exploration of Brazil's endless supply of captivating music. Catch a mesmerizing indie-ambient album from João Carvalho, some posthumous crooning from Raul Malo, the twangy return of Oklahoma's rising star Wyatt Flores, and much more.Artists and albums featured in this episode:(01:13) Cruz Contreras & The Black Lillies, 'Gold and Roses (Live)'(06:15) João Carvalho, 'Uma Festa no Centro do Vazio'(13:02) Raul Malo, 'Bella Ciao: Raul Malo Live In Nashville'(17:14) Rincon Sapiência, 'Um Corpo Preto'(24:13) Wyatt Flores, 'Scared of Heights'(27:50) Cupido, 'Maldito Cupido'This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. Suraya Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Okay, I'm rolling again. Hello, Felix. Nothing like technical difficulties, man. We don't know anything about those. Please don't tell the audience. I can't tell the audience because we can't swear on the air. This is a family show. And there's no clean moments of Felix with technology.

Okay. From NPR music, this is all Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisme begin. Okay, Anna, last week, we were able to get through the difficult task of selecting some of our favorite tracks of the year so far. Now that's behind us, clean slate, get to look at the rest of the year. And, Anna, I got to say we're going to share with our listeners that we've got some kind of special stuff going on.

A little bit out of the ordinary, but very special. This is so classic you, Felix. Teased the thing and don't tell them anything. I'm angry for our listeners. We're indignant, the collective. We're unionizing against us. You're going to steal. Okay, all right, I'll take it. But let's kick off some new music to soothe your anger. Okay. For some reason, I was in a very country music mode.

For some reason. You've never been before. Yeah, well, I mean, like all country music this week. My three tracks are going to be all country music. And I want to start with a guy that I completely forgot about. I covered some of his work with his previous band years ago. This is Cruz Contreras and the Black Lilies. This is called Golden Roses. Check this out. So let me just say that right off the top that I'm pronouncing his name, Contreras, because I'm going to assume that given that he's very successful in the country and Americana area, that that's how he's pronouncing his name professionally.

And it doesn't matter because either way, the music I think is really good. He used to be a member of Robinella and the CC string band, and CC was Cruz Contreras. They had four very successful albums in Americana, and he started singing back in 2007, and he started his solo career. Check this out, like in 2019, right before the pandemic. He left Robinella, and he started doing his own stuff,

and then he was limited to doing these distancedly safe concerts and stuff. It was a rough time to start, but it also gave him a lot of times just spent a lot of time songwriting. And it brings us to now because this single reminds us of, I think, a very formidable talent in terms of songwriting, in terms of his place in America and country. I mean, he's been doing this for a long time. It's not a newcomer. So he has already a reputation. And that's a world that we don't usually talk about.

so we don't really know his name. But I remember his name from Robinella, and I know that the stuff that I'm listening to now and his solo album from 2023 is pretty impressive. You know, Felix, I'm going to make a general comment on the whole country thing before we, or as we jump into it with you today, because I have been thinking a lot about this,

and I know we've covered a lot the idea of Mexican music, specifically regional Mexican music and country, having this really kind of undeniable relationship. and more and more and more I see it as they're the same. Like there really is not much of a distinction both between the lyricism and then also the musicality of it in the sense that if you go out and dance La Chona in the street, you're dancing, you're line dancing. Like it is really that same thing. And I always think of, you know, that time I went to the Houston rodeo and that really is like the is Baile de Rodeo. It's the same thing as line dancing.

It's the same thing as country. Like that region and the music that it has is better representative of the place than the lines. You know, like that really does. There is not really much of a difference. We draw, like, we label them distinctly, but they sound so the same. And their rights are exactly the same. Yeah. And the whole storytelling aspect of it in very visual, very expressive terms, you know,

certain key points that you hit on when they're writing these songs like location. family, you know, whiskey. Suffering. You know, all this stuff, man. All the stuff that happens in Mexican regional or Mariachi even, right? Exactly. But also all of these songs are made to be played in community, to be danced in community, which suffering in community is not really suffering at all.

Oh, wait a minute. I want to write that down. And then Anna is a suffering in community is not really suffering at all. Okay, let's remember that. You know, I got to say before we go, my mom was a country music fan, and I think that she would be tickled. My mom is a country music fan.

And I think that she would be tickled to know that there's a Contreras singing country music and is doing pretty well. That is Cruz Contreras and the Black Lilies. Golden Roses is the name of the single. No announcement yet for an album. So standing by for that. That singles out right now, so check it out.

Tag, you're it. Okay, so much like you, You have given us country today. I surprisingly am giving us Brazil. I don't know where that came from. It's really bizarre. I never do this. So I'm going to play a song called Astronata from Brazilian artist, Yao Karabay.

Felix, so this is Zhao Karavayo's first album. It's called Uma Festa No Centro do Vacio, which means a party in the center of the empty, basically. And he wrote that actually. The entire name of the album is named after this poem by Roberto Juarez. He's a poet from Argentina by the same name. That's about basically a party in the center of emptiness. And this whole record is kind of playing with empty space like that. I love it because it's representative to me one of just like the absolute diversity.

I mean, I bring all this Brazilian music, right? Quotes Brazilian music. But it's like none of it really sounds all that similar. What I'm going to bring later sounds completely. different from this. And that is to remind that Brazil is absolutely... It's like the U.S. in some ways and that it's many, many, many worlds

within what is described as one country, one language, kind of, necessarily Portuguese. But, I mean, it's like a sweet, soft indie record. I want to play the title track called Umma Festa in No Centro do Vassio. So is he an ambient artist An ambient artist or all of the above. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I don't know.

I mean, do you remember when I brought that Dominican band, Solo Fernandez on? Yes. The percussion of it is all really kind of related. did and I said at the time when I brought them on, I was like, this is a type of, a specific type of indie that you don't hear on the island that often referring to the Dominican Republic. Like, it's just not something that, that you hear and they're very much like the kind of promoters of that scene there. And then to hear this, like the indie quote, indie alternative scene in Brazil doesn't sound like him at all. Like this is very different from an Anna Franco

Franco electro or something like that, right? Like he doesn't fit into what is like the burgeoning indie scene that I keep talking about. I think it's just everything. I think, it's just everything. I think Brazil much like, let's say Argentina, is liberated. Brazil is liberated by its isolation in a lot of ways. And so when I talk about Brazil being so expensive, part of that expansiveness is that you can't see the border and you can't see what's around you and so you can make whatever you want. And that, what I found, like the shared thing of a lot of the countries that have impressed me, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, musically, is that you can't, there's no related border that's going to impact what you create, I think, which is different from a lot of Latin

America and especially places like Mexico, let's say, that's always can see the U.S. But, you know, at the same time, you know, they certainly have access to technology and being able to pull in music and influences from other parts of the world even, not just their neighboring countries. And in stuff like this, you know, I hear there was a genre of music that was a big fan of and still developed in the 70s with electronic instruments. instruments and stuff, this ambient music, and it's really just floating stuff. I really just was a big fan of that stuff, Brian Eno, some of the stuff. He's a pioneer, you know. But there were, there's also a guy Jorge Reyes from Mexico City who made ambient music but with pre-Columbian instruments.

Yes. And so like this kind of stuff, it's, to me it sounds ambient, but from, like you said, but from this isolated part of Brazil that has a whole different set of percussive, foundation background hints you know flavors it's fascinating to me and also i mean if you think about it conceptually it was literally an entire album inspired by an argentine poet in a different language like this this poem and i'll read it to it's quite beautiful it says or i'll read the english translation sometimes it seems as if we're at the center of the party however there's no one at the center of the party at the center of the party is emptiness, but at the center of the emptiness is another party.

That is an Argentine poem written in Spanish that this Brazilian artist took and converted into Portuguese and wrote an album around. So clearly, there is conversation, obviously. Yeah. That was a couple of songs from Jao Caravallo's new album, debut album, Uma Festa No Centro Duvasio. I'm going to play a track from Raul Malo. Last December, we lost Raul Malo, and he was really one of the greatest voices of any genre from here in the United States. He was with the band The Mavericks.

He had an exhaustive solo career, almost four decades of making country music in Americana. And toward the end, even some Spanish language music, he dipped back into his Colombian-American roots. There's an upcoming recording of his last solo performance of earlier in 2025. This is a sneak preview of this. This is called Forever and Ever. And the album is going to be called Bella Chow live from Nashville. This is Raul Malo.

Ever and ever, forever and ever you'll be that shines in me like the moment and sun. ever and ever forever and ever my spring my green bowl's end and the song I sing take you shout your Oh my God Felix

Yeah That is so beautiful Especially you would consider That he may have You know he may have already known that he was coming close to the end when he performed that. It's from a Father's Day concert in 2025, and then he passed, what, six months later in December in 2025.

You know, posthumist albums are tricky. Because back in the 70s, man, and what comes to mind is Jimmy Hendricks, and they just put anything out that was left over. But nowadays, I think that musicians' legacies are curated and managed and controlled by family members, by people who really care about the artist. And in this case, Raul Malo,

his family was a big part of his career behind the scenes and moving it forward and keeping it going. And they're not going to put out anything just to make money. They're going to put something out that's going to continue to cement his legacy as one of the greatest voices out there and one of the great interpreters of songs like that. I mean, I could go on and on about Raul Malo,

and I have, of course, here on the show. But if you're new to country music, this is a great place to start. You cannot go wrong with Raoomalo. And also, you know, check out their tiny desk concerts. We brought them in December of 2022, powerful performance. It was really something else to be in the space with that voice. I think you're exactly right in the sense that usually posthumous albums for me are like kind of icky. But this one feels like he did.

No. Like that vocal is so clean and clear and emotive, but in like a peaceful way, it feels like something people deserve to hear. And almost like I understand where he was mentally. And before he went is how it feels to me, honestly. Like there's a, there's a calm confidence in that vocal from him. That's really, I mean, it made me, it's beautiful. The track is called Forever and Ever. It's a single coming from an album called Bella Chow, live from Nashville, the great Raul Mulal. I think we'll take a break with that one.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to Alt Latina. We're talking new music here in what, the seventh month already? Wow, of 2026. Okay, your turn. Okay, I'm going straight to party. I'm going back to Brazil and I'm going to party.

Okay, let's go. This is like this album, oh, it's so good. This is by an artist called Rincon Sapienza, and the album is called um corpo preto this song in particular is the first track on the album and it's called diaspora I mean, there's so much, there's so much going on. And again, the influence of hip hop from North America

and how it is interpreted in so many different places around the world, especially in Latin America. Oh, my God. That's one thing, part piece, where I might actually push back on you, Felix. I don't know. Undoubtedly, does this sound like, like all kinds of American hip hop, absolutely.

Is it influenced by, or does it just come from the same place? I'm going to play you another song before we get into anything else. It's called Casino. When the time has a edit, desacredite. This attitude not is confiable, because the world's Gira. The trajectory was chiga, but the motivation there was a bit of ira when conspirator

It's a lento, but time passes like vultu. I'm loitadas, I'm bevibed, but what I live is a life of adult, so look for us, With more dingue than the Essence destroy, it's a cavalo of Troy, Cyphra, in front of Zoy, mentificing, dodoi, False, pes' pes'gous, gregue of jinguees, It's very important

we conquist The rock is freeto But I lament The preto more The blacker D'Lam'r from flash Shuba de cash Lich is a lucho

Metamorphose In this crossover Grand like Lange-Rover Vind the film Overdose Never So I'm an example Apenas Compositor

I let the caneta A liberty and cantor Triste is when for a little We let her Sack-E Hey

Shogo Daza Like Casino In Roleta It's Pedereroga So when you say you push back because your suggesting it all comes from the same place, elaborate. Um Corpo Preto is the name of this album. Do you know what that translates to? I'm assuming a black body. A black body. And I mean, that's what this album is in every way.

Like it is more than, I mean, Brazil obviously is a country that has a really, really rich community of black people. It is extremely I think it's perhaps one of the more linked closely linked to Africa Latin American countries percussively, culturally, everything right? And I think that this record

I mean this artist you know he is he's been active since 2000 like he is one of the big ones he's a legend he's a rapper who's been nominated for you know MTV music Brazil awards and all kinds of various things

and I think, I guess the reason I question it is because I don't know. Like, I don't know. And I really, I don't know if this is him looking towards, you know, examples of 90s U.S. hip hop, let's say, because obviously that sound is very present. It's present in the first track to me, and then in the second track, it almost feels like a sema funk thing in a way.

But he does. So it is very African in that sense, too, and that it's a review of all these different types of sounds. But I don't know if that's him looking at the U.S. or I wonder if that's just native to the Brazilian hip hop scene and what he comes from and what he's a pioneer in that we don't know enough about. And so to our ears, being more familiar

with an American hip-hop and rap history, that's what we see is we see an influence there. But it's possible, but that those two things really were never in much conversation with each other. You know, I think that just given the amount of time that hip-hop has been part of the world's, vocabulary, musical vocabulary. I mean, my reference was, you know, to North American hip hop,

started by African-Americans, Afro Latinos, in New York. But that was so long ago that there is maybe, there's a trace there, but I think you're right in that these societies, these countries, these musical scenes are developing their own. So it started somewhere, but they're taking it to their own place. And the other thing I want to talk about is the idea of syntax and how, you know, The flow is impacted by the language because the lyrics may be different in Spanish because of the flow and in English because of the flow. And listening to it in Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, it has a whole different feel to it.

Still very, very melodic too. I've always thought about Portuguese rap feels closest to me to French rap, the flow specifically. Like talking about syntax and the way it flows, even more than Spanish rap. I would say. But that's the thing is then when you take it out and you zoom out to a larger context of Brazil, and I've talked a lot about its history and its value for songwriting,

like really beautiful songwriting, and then you look at the streets of Sao Paulo where you have artists like this who came up, and there is a valuation, I think, of the story as part of the rap experience that is unique to, let's say, an American hip-hop. I love this whole album. You have to listen to it.

It's insane. I'm going to. I'm going to add it to a playlist. I'll make a playlist special for it. That was a couple of tracks from the Rincon Sapienza album Um Corpo Preto. Okay, so continuing with our thing of going back and forth, I'm going to finish my last track today with a young artist to become one of my favorites and a favorite to watch and watch him develop. I've played his music quite a bit before. Wyatt Flotis has a new record coming out in. July. The album's called Scared of Heights. This track is called Half the Man. There's an old song that says you're always 17 in your hometown. At the age of 24, I know what they're talking about. As I fire up the diesel, I'm surprised it even starts.

Take a six-pack to my sister's Christmas lights on her car. Paul. the years and and and Wyatt Flotus is one of the newest ones and you know one of the joys of doing this work that we we get to do is watching an artist develop and like come in like you bring in so many young artists and we've watched them grow and develop as people as songwriters as you know record producers everything and one of the things about watching Wyatt Flotis is as you know he says you learn some wisdom at age 24, you know, there's so much for him to experience yet in life. But what he's already experienced has come out in this amazing songwriting.

And this record, I can't wait to hear the rest of it, because I'm sure that everything that happens is the last record. It comes out in his songwriting. And this one in particular really, really hit me because the song is about the one that leaves home and the sacrifices that you make you know you miss birthdays you miss weddings you miss funerals you know you have to hear the whole track to hear how those tensions are resolved and it's really going to break your heart in a really good way but that's the magic of his songwriting is that he saves it to the very end and you're like oof man let me listen to that again because

I want to I want to experience that the track is called Half the Man. That's Wyatt Flores. He's got an album coming out in July 31st. Singles out now. Keep going, Wyatt. We're still listening. Okay.

Anna, take a song, man. All right. Last track. We're finally leaving Brazil. We're going to Spain. Ooh. This is an artist called Cupido, and this song is called Maldito Cupido.

Oh, what I'm gonna' just that I'd like be a man with so you're always

always and I'm conform with to be a across of a panthia that

I still can't let's he's that's he's not having a good time man?

No, he's not having a good time. Maldito al-a-a-mort, Maldito Cupid. Did you write this song, Felix? I can imagine you in your room. Maldito Amor, Maldito Cupid. In another lifetime, sure. Yeah, of course. It's just one of those simple, great love tracks.

He wrote that song with Cucco. I mean, it's fitting. The Southern California guy that we really like. Who has that very classic heartbreak. bedroom pop tone. And that's the thing about a lot of these Spanish artists. And again, I talked about this a little bit earlier as having a blank canvas, you know, this has been a sort of a lot of controversy, the way that Spanish artists flow in what they produce and the ways that they incorporate lots of different Latin American sounds. But I heard this song and I was

like, wow, there's so much of cucko and it almost has like a bolero-esque tone to it, but very contemporary and has the bedroom pop kind of thing going on. And so this album is, that again it's an exploration of a tapping into a lot of different genres not even within a song but in different you know small moments in different songs and some people might have feelings about that but ultimately it creates for a really interesting you know musical exploration of what is what different sounds the kinds of emotions that they can bring out and how they do that and this is just a simple heartbreak track which we love here on all latino not that feeling and I are ever heartbroken.

Sweet too. But hypothetically. Theoretically. That was the track Maldito Cupid off of the album Amor Compartido by Cupid.

You have been listening to Alt Latino from NPR Music our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of MPR music is Saraya Mohamed. And executive director, Sanali Meta. Do us a favor.

Drop us the line. We want to hear from you. We love to hear from you, actually. Especially if you have bad things to say about Felix. What's the email that they can send those bad things to? Alt Latino at NPR.org. You have been listening to Alt Latino on Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer.

Thank you for listening.