SPOTLIGHT: Watch Che Apalache Play ‘Rearrange My Heart’ on a Colorado Hilltop

If you want to get a feel for the wide range of sounds Che Apalache pours into its music, the title track from their new album, Rearrange My Heart, is a fine place to start. Opening as a hymn that offers a heart and soul open to gratitude and lift, it soon eases into a groove that pulls in sounds from around the world.

Here’s more on the song from Che Apalache’s Joe Troop:

“Rearrange My Heart” is a world music hodgepodge that pulls from all kinds of influences. I feel like the first part came out of my having sung Bach chorales in a Moravian church throughout my childhood. I wrote the second part while singing and banging on a doumbek at a raging late-night party in Buenos Aires. As a band we tried to capture the essence of Rajasthani folk music on our instruments using percussive techniques and polyrhythms. The guitar hits and mandolin figure in 9/8 scream “India” to me, sort of creating a tabla feel. In fact, an Indian national once approached us after a gig to tell us how much the song reminded him of home. This song is very much the result of globalization, but it has a downhome feel. Lyrically, to quote my dear friend Abigail Browning, it’s like my “love letter to religion.” It expresses a lot of faith in the human spirit and our capacity to evolve.”

Watch those polyrhythms in action in the video below, filmed in Boulder, Colorado, after Che Apalache’s performance at this year’s RockyGrass. And hear that song and more on Rearrange My Heart, produced by Béla Fleck and released Aug. 9 on Free Dirt Records.

Che Apalache is No Depression‘s Spotlight band for August 2019. Read more about the band in our feature story, and look for more coverage all month long.