CachaBacha

Sisters Andrea and Natalia Stevenson play with an intimacy derived from spending their whole lives together. Along with Anders Johnson and Aaron Prieto, the quartet inhabits a space at once private and public - broadcasting personal narratives to all who will listen while retaining their music’s honest and personal focus. The name Cachabacha, an Ellis Island-esqe anglicization of ‘Cachavacha’, refers proudly to a witch of Latin American folklore, particularly of the sister’s ancestral home Argentina. It’s a name indicative of their ability to sew tradition and innovation together and then celebrate the seam. Andrea writes with an ancient melancholy inherited through the generations of musicians who’ve influenced her, like legendary delta blues picker Mississippi John Hurt. Similarly to Hurt and many other American Primitivists, Andrea received no tutelage, opting instead to hone rhythmic skills bucket drumming on New York City streets and develop her songwriting from contemporary folk players like Thao Nguyen and The Tallest Man on Earth. For all this influence and output, Natalia acts a guide, helping Andrea to arrange a puzzle of guitar parts and melodic fragments, and then as a partner - her voice winding effortlessly around, behind, and before her sister’s. With the addition of their rhythm section, who have similarly performed together since childhood, the band has gone through a metamorphosis. Their songs, previously beautiful in their sensitivity, have expanded not only in sound but also in complexity. Following a conscious decision to grow, rather than remain comfortable in familiar territory, the group has ventured into the realms of disco drum beats and funk-reminiscent bass lines. Aaron and Anders offer the music a groovy rock for the songs to stand on while still giving the swift fingerpicking and contagious melodies room to breathe. Andrea and Natalia are a couple of Central Jersey suburbanites seeking inspiration from old american folk and modern singer-songwriter styles.