Larry & Joe Blend Venezuelan and Appalachian Folk Music

Interviewed by John Schaefer for New Sounds (WNYC)
6.12.23

Venezuelan legend of Llanera music Larry Bellorín and GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician Joe Troop play as Larry & Joe.  Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina, and worked construction to make ends meet, although he has been a musician and educator all his life. Troop, a socially conscious “Latingrass” musician with Che Apalache, has written songs about migration, and works with asylum seekers; he relocated to North Carolina to be in this duo with Larry.

Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music come together on Larry’s custom-built Joropo folk harp and Joe’s fiddle and banjo, as they blend their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling on their record, Nuevo South Train. The duo performs remotely from the 2023 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. […]

Set list: “Gabanjo”, “Caballo Viejo”

Click to listen and watch.