Larry & Joe – Manos Panamericanos

Written by Shawn Underwood for Twangville
9.05.24

One of my highlights at Folk Alliance a couple of years ago was seeing a couple of sets from Larry & Joe. Their subsequent album, Nuevo South Train, was one of my top 5 that year. So when I heard they had a new record coming out, I had a little trepidation about whether their unique blend of South, Latin and North American folk music would now sound, you know, ordinary. Fear not, vicarious musical traveler, the duo continues to push the boundaries of folk fusion while retaining the hooks that keep the songs so appealing.

What’s new with Manos Panamericanos is an inclusion of, and some emphasis on, the percussive element so inherent in many of the traditional folk styles. Take, for example, Arpa Banjo Merengue. Adapted for the banjo and harp, it features Dominican percussionist Ramón Ortiz who was well acquainted with the original Piano Merengue. Venezuelan waltz La Partida showcases Grammy-winner Tony Succar on cajón. Original composition Move On and Let Live has Joe taking a spin on some banjo flat-picking. This added an Irish flair, so the pair recruited Irish bodhran player Dermot Sheedy to flesh out the sound.

It’s not all about the percussion, though. Festival en Guararé is the kind of mashup Larry and Joe do so extraordinarily well. It’s a fiddle tune, with Columbian folk music influences, with a sampling of the Appalachian tune Ragtime Annie, all sung in Spanish. Ya Volveré a la Sierra Blue Ridge is mostly a traditional bluegrass number, but with the chorus an interweaving of English and Spanish. The most striking song on the album is probably Runnin’ From the Weather. It’s a psychedelic bluegrass number with percussive dancing in an apocalyptic celebration of how the super rich are destroying the world to where “it’s hard to find a hiding place from all this earthly woe.” You have to hear it to understand the sentiment.

You could write a book about all the life experiences that came together for Larry Bellorin and Joe Troop to meet in North Carolina, where Joe grew up and Larry was seeking asylum. Fate knew what she was doing, though, when she put these two together with their instruments on a stage. They can finish each other’s sentences, both musically and verbally, and Manos Panamericanos is their latest example of music you’ve never heard before that will draw you back to listen again and again.

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