Che Apalache

bluegrass · folk · roots

Che Apalache is a four-piece string band formed in Buenos Aires in 2013 by the North Carolina fiddler Joe Troop, blending bluegrass and old-time with Latin American forms. Troop, drawn to the music after seeing Doc Watson play, moved to Argentina in 2010 to teach bluegrass and built the group out of three of his students: the Argentines Franco Martino on guitar and Martin Bobrik on mandolin, and the Mexican banjo player Pau Barjau. All four sing. The band began as a strictly Appalachian repertory group and gradually folded in murga, candombe, flamenco, Sephardic Jewish and gospel material as the members drew on their own backgrounds. It self-released Latin Grass in 2017. The second album, Rearrange My Heart, was recorded in February 2019 at Bela Fleck's home studio and produced by Fleck, who had met the band at his banjo camp and said their originality made it impossible to say no; Free Dirt Records issued it on 9 August 2019. Its twelve tracks include the Argentine-history piece 24 de marzo, La milonga del cuis empedernido and Rock of Ages. The album was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 62nd Grammy Awards in 2020, and NPR's Alt.Latino called the bluegrass and Latin blend a must-hear. The band stopped work in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It returns to the United States in 2027 for the first time in seven years, with Troop, Martino and Barjau joined by Omar Ruiz-Lopez on mandolin in place of Bobrik; the run includes a date at the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton, Wisconsin on 9 April 2027.

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