Canter Bridge

A review like this requires full disclosure.

Sara Arias is a Costa Rica friend of mine who was during my years spent in her country a student and parisioner of mine. At the Iglesia Bíblica Nazaret that was our shared church home she served as a vibrant and thoughtful worship leader. Indeed, it gives me little pleasure to note that she was one of the few members of that guild who understood that worship was neither about her nor about exacting a certain behavior intended chiefly to raise the self-esteem of musicians.

So how does Sara go down as a recording artist? Well, to borrow a word from her title track, rather bien.

It requires astonishing grit and perseverance to pull off a debut album like this in Central America. Sara possesses the required gumption. She would probably call it visión.

After getting a standard calling card out of the way on track one, Sara begins to reveal her promise with the album’s title track, Me has hecho bien. This upbeat track leans heavily on biblical vocabulary and its gritty, world-affirming confidence, a signal of where Sara will establish the tone of her debut album. Still, there is enough musical convention here to keep you guessing as to whether this project will truly take off.

That’s why track four arrives to such profound welcome, for Sara fairly shines there (‘Tú por mí). This tune is the first indication that the album’s finest moments will occur in those songs that are most pensive, a hypothesis that is born out in spades in the psalmic ‘¿Quién tengo en el cielo?’. This interrogative meditation on fragility and sustenance is worthy of the biblical psalmody that fuels its solid passion. Along the way, one gathers the conviction that this young lady has a future not only as a recording artist but also as a writer.

On Sin ti, she writes this way:

Yo por ti, nada de nada
yo por ti, sólo la espalda
o por tti, sólo migajas
pensando en mi mismo
jugando a creer

Y tú por mí, Tu Padre y Tu Gloria
Tú por mí, Espinas y escoria
Tú por mí …. la vida, la muerte, la piel y la cruz.

Sara is picking up the reciprocal biblical logic of the cross here and transposing it into lyrics that are profound because they are simple. It is the craftsmanship of a budding artist and Sara pulls it off with an endearing humility that is even less common than her skill. But don’t miss Sandy Quirós’ guitar riffs on this piece either. Art and language marry here.

A quién tengo yo is perhaps an even stronger piece, set apart from the one I’ve mentioned by a regrettable foray into blues (‘Lugar seguro’):

Yo me hundía en la tristeza y la angustia
Escondía yo mi alma del perdón
Ya tan ciego no veía que me llamabas
Como un necio, no quería oír tu voz
Pero en todo mne quedé siempre a tu lado
Y paciente, me tomaste de la mano
Tú me has guiado, con tu gran sabiduría
Y al final tú la corona me darás.

Again it is the lyric in concert with some fine musicianship that elevates this track. The pause-and-release between the words just rehearsed and the moving chorus is exquisite:

¿A quién tengo yo en el cielo, sino a tí?
Si te tengo, ¿aquí en la tierra que habrá para mí?
Pues mi Dios es mi sustento, pues mi Dios es mi refugio.
Y por tiempre sostendrá mi corazón.

That a young musician can distill suffering and its product into such a musical receptacle is an uncommon promissory note laid down on future artistry. It would be unwise to be absent when Sara sounds forth with her sophomore effort.

There is much more to be said, but it is far more important to lay down this review and listen. Me has hecho bien can be purchased at cdbaby.com.