Pies Descalzos (CD - 1996)

Personnel: Howard Glassford (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); programming); Shakira (vocals); Luis Fernando Ochoa (harmonica, Hammond B-3, keyboards, bass, percussion, background vocals); Alejandro "Pancho" Gomez (harmonica); Eusebio Valderrama (trumpet); Camilo Montilla (piano); Nacho Pilonieta, Jose "Jota" Garcia (bass); Gonzo Vasquez (drums, shaker, tambourine, timbales, programming, background vocals); Samuel Torres (percussion); Andrea Pineros, Jose Gaviria (background vocals).

Engineers include: Luis Fernando Ochoa, Gonzalo Vasquez, Camilo Montilla.

Recorded at Sonido Azulado Studio, Bogota, Columbia; Ocean V.U. Studio, Miami, Florida between February & July 1995.

Personnel includes: Shakira (vocals, guitar); Luis Fernando Ochoa (Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, bass, percussion, background vocals); Gonzo Vasquez (programming, percussion); Jose Gaviria, Andrea Pineros (background vocals).

Recorded in Miami, Florida in July 1995.

Personnel: Shakira (vocals); Howard Glassfor (vocals, guitar); Luis Fernando Ochoa (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, programming, background vocals); Nacho Pilonieta, Jose Garcia (bajo sexto); Alejandro Gomez (harmonica); Eusebio Valderrama (trumpet); Camilo Montilla (piano); Gonzo Vasquez (drums, shaker, timbales, programming, background vocals); Samuel Torres (percussion); Andrea Piñeros, Jose Gaviria, Shakira Mebarak (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Victor DiPersia; Juan Antonio Castillo; Luis Fernando Ochoa.

Recording information: Ocean V.U., Miami, FL (02/1995-07/1995); Sonido Azulado, Bogota, Colombia (02/1995-07/1995).

Director: Alvaro Farfan.

Photographers: Miguel Angel Velandia; Patricia Bonilla.

Born to Lebanese parents in a coastal town in Colombia, Shakira has followed an unlikely path to international stardom. She started making albums at 15, gradually merging her love for American folk-rock with her Latin sensibility, until she crossed over into the mainstream with CIEGO, SORDO, MUDO.

PIES DESCALZOS is the release immediately preceding CIEGO, a purer distillation of the singer before Emilio Estefan got his hands on her. Peforming with standard rock instrumentation and relying on simple riffs, Shakira uses her highly flexible vocal range to infuse her melancholic love songs with an unusual power. If on CIEGO SORDO MUDO she sounded like Alanis Morissette, here she's more like Tracy Chapman. Songs like "Pienso en Ti" and "Te Necesito" have a haunting, elegiac quality. "Un Poco de Amor" is a rollicking celebration of reggae's reach beyond Jamaica, and the title track brings you into the mental state of idealistic Latin youth. "You belong to an ancient race of barefoot people / And now you just want to be happy," she sings, and the kids know they're all right. minimize