Fandango Flamenco

So my phone has radio on it. And in those moments where you just want background noise, or to listen in Spanish without having to respond, it's perfect. Score one for the team. Plus, I get to listen to flamenco music all the time because it's always on the radio.

Flamenco is the traditional music and dance of Southern Spain, the gitanos, and I tend to think a mix that also incorporates the strong Moorish influence of centuries past. Each of the provinces of the community of Andalucia has a name for its own style of flamenco; Sevilla has the Sevillana, Malaga the Malaguena, Huelva the Fandango. I'd actually heard of Fandango before I got here - another random tidbit of knowledge that makes me feel like Huelva was not such a random locale for me to have been placed.

Nightlife culture in Bollullos is nothing if not an adventure. Sometimes random, always interesting. Granted its a small town, but that just tends to mean you always run into someone you know. I spent most of last weekend at a bar called John Lennon. Oddly enough the owners don't play a ton of John Lennon or even the Beatles, but that's ok. They're really friendly. They do play Stevie Wonder, though, and occasionally show concerts by Beyonce and J-Lo on the flatscreen above the bar.

The bar's owner's are also strong supporters of the flamenco singing tradition. So the scene I witnessed last night and a couple of times last weekend with a table of five or more people, one playing the guitar, another one or two singing intermittently, was totally normal. I listened to a restaurant owner as he described the distinctions between Fandango and other styles of Flamenco, and proceeded to ask him why he wasn't singing. By the time I left, he was. Along with a larger man with a huge mustache. It's pretty cool to watch a tradition coming to life. I'm working on getting the clapping rhythm together, I mean, I'm not super struggling, but it is highly irregular. And I don't quite know how the singers undulate their voices, or if the words are made up or from an older song, but uh, suffice to say I'll be back to John Lennon, and working my way towards that table.