New York, NY (Top40 Charts) New York City all blind Latin Band "los Ciegos Del Barrio" has released their new single "
Baby Boy" on ITunes, Amazon, CD Baby and other on line outlets. Listen to the new track here as it has just been uploaded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wm6U2l47gw
Los Ciegos Del Barrio, which translates to "The
Blind Boys From The Hood", is a bilingual Latin band from New York City in which all of the members are legally blind. Most of its members were born in "El Barrio", a Latin neighborhood located in Harlem in New York City.
The band may be remembered for their feature on Univision's "Republica Deportiva", as part of a 2012 contest featuring numerous Latin bands around the United States. At that time, they were fresh off their previous album release "Live In
Havana Cuba", an album that was recorded as they toured Cuba in 2011 and subsequently, again in 2013. They were the first American band to ever play the nationally televised live performance to cap off Cuba's annual international bookfare. Their 2009 song "Loco" was featured on that 2012 Univision contest.
The new single is called "
Baby Boy", which is written and sung by band leader Alvin Suarez in English.
"The song addresses the topic of child abuse." says Alvin Suarez, percussionist, guitarist and lead singer of "
Baby Boy". "The song embodies a protective father figure, making a promise to an abused little boy, which is also believed to be his childhood self. This topic, unfortunately, is one that too many people can relate with...I mean how many people grew up in an abusive environment and wished they had someone to protect them, or at very least wished they could somehow grow up quick enough to protect themselves? This song is for those people."
The song combines Bachata with Alternative Rock music, as did "Loco" in 2009, only this one is sung completely in English. While the band acknowledges that Bachata and either Rock or Pop music has been fused before thanks to such bands as "
Aventura", but "Los Ciegos Del Barrio" is the first Latin band to combine the raw natural sound of Alternative Rock music, which later morphed into Grundge in the 1990's, with the beautiful danceable style of Bachata. The band calls it "Alternative Bachata".
In addition to this song release, the band has enjoyed much success resulting from their release of their Salsa version of "Mama Used To Say", a classic dance tune originally performed by "Junior" during the early 1980's. You can listen to that track here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T9-erRDQz8
While "Los Ciegos Del Barrio", originally in jest, addresses their visual impairments bluntly through the name of their band, they want to clarify that while the name addresses what they are, their music is representative of who they are. They have released 4 albums since 2000, along with 4 singles and a new album is expected for release in 2016. They have toured the Eastern and Central United States, Russia, The Dominican Republic and Cuba.
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/losciegosdelbarrio
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/losciegosdelbarrio
Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/losciegos
