(2010) Bajo La Corteza (26 Canciones De Leño)

Bajo la Corteza: 26 Canciones de Leño is a double-disc tribute album to Leño, an influential hard rock band from Madrid, Spain, featuring singer, songwriter, and guitarist Rosendo Mercado. Leño were active for a short period, just long enough to release four albums, Leño (1979), Más Madera (1980), En Directo (1981), and Corre, Corre (1982). Following the band's breakup, Mercado embarked on a fruitful solo career that began with the album Loco por Incordiar in 1985 and carried on for decades. As the legacy of Mercado grew in stature, so did that of Leño, and though the band never experienced much fame during its existence during the late '70s and early '80s, it was well regarded enough after the turn of the century to justify the release of Bajo la Corteza: 26 Canciones de Leño. While there are quite a few major artists featured here on this tribute album, most notably Luz Casal, Barricada, M-Clan, and Antonio Vega, the late singer/songwriter at the helm of Nacha Pop, most of the featured artists are relatively obscure. The lack of big names isn't necessarily a hindrance, as time and time again the material itself carries the album so long as the bands stay true to the original versions by Leño. Fortunately, that's more often than not the case on Bajo la Corteza: 26 Canciones de Leño. All the same, the highlights tend to be the performances by the aforementioned well-known acts. Luz Casal, who in fact was an auxiliary bandmember of Leño, credited with performing background vocals on the live album En Directo, opens Bajo la Corteza: 26 Canciones de Leño with a gripping performance of "Entre las Cejas." The Barricada and M-Clan performances of "Aprendiendo a Escuchar" and "Todo Es Más Sencillo," respectively, are also something special to behold, though admittedly Vega's performance of "Sin Solución" is rather perfunctory and notable mostly for its appearance less than a year after his death. A DVD documentary chronicling the recording process of Bajo la Corteza: 26 Canciones de Leño is also included as part of the package. ~ Jason Birchmeier