11. Simon DiazTonadas
Tonadas are an indigenous Venezuelan song form and Simón Díaz is another one of those artists who’s hard to categorise – he’s not a folk musician, but people call him one. I’m still so surprised actually: we played a show in Holland and we were introduced as "the folk musicians" and we’re sitting there, there’s not an acoustic instrument in sight!
Anyway, Simón is definitely not a folk musician – he was a great pedagogue and legend and a very beloved character in Venezuela. But really he was a poet, who was an incredible singer and player, who was singing his praises to Venezuela. He’s a naturalist, too: these are songs that are in praise of the natural world, and that happens to be Venezuela for him. I think it’s very revolutionary and very powerful.
