Musical cross-pollination at its finest! The dynamic duo of Larry & Joe effortlessly melds Venezuelan folk traditions with Appalachian string band music for a highly addictive and powerful hybrid sound. On their acclaimed new release Nuevo South Train, they play banjos, fiddles, cuatros, harps, maracas and voices, weaving together Venezuelan llanera and other Latin folk traditions with oldtime porch-rockers.
Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.
Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, maracas and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.
STUDENT TALK & DEMO: LARRY & JOE
Saturday, November 18 :: 11 AM
This is a family/student-oriented event and is not a performance. Larry & Joe will demonstrate their instruments as well as discuss their collaboration and the cultural melding of their music. Experience what the students experience as part of the in-school programming at the Shalin Liu Performance Center.
Runtime: 40-45 minutes
Free, reservations encouraged. Limit: 40
