Books and Cd's Guillermo Anderson

Mujer Canción, Canción Mujer
(Womansong Songwoman)
Recently, Guillermo started a concert for a group of organized women saying how we are “in our culture we are so used to hearing songs about the fragility and vulnerability of women but not about their strength.” This compilation put together by Costa Norte Records along with the support of Honduras National Institute For Women, brings together Guillermo´s songs in which the main characters are women. Many of the songs in this compilation have been used in workshops by women’s organizations in Honduras to generate discussion about the situation of women in the country and in Latin America. Songs like the humorous Historia de Manuelito, about one day in the life of a man who has agreed to do the home chores and take care of the children, were the result of discussions and meetings with issues that campesino women wanted to address. The song A La Leche Materna (Breast Feeding Song) was used widely for a breast feeding campaign. There is also Haydeé who makes her living hand washing clothes but has a strong spirit and on weekends she’s the queen of Calypso and Reggae. Adelante Muchachas the last song in the compilation is the sound track to a documentary by the same name that follows the lives and differences of two Honduran girls of different social classes but come together for the love of soccer.

Llevarte Al Mar
(Take you to the Sea)
“Llevarte Al Mar” is the result of a growing audience for Guillermo in Costa Rica and Guillermo´s strong ties with some of the most relevant Costa Rican musicians. Due to the response of audiences and press for Guillermo in that Central American country Papaya Music, perhaps the most important record label in that country decided to release a compilation as an introduction to the music of Guillermo. The response has been as expected. Llevarte Al Mar was released as Guillermo performed with his full band in Costa Rica’s International Festival of the Arts with great success.

Encarguitos del Caribe
(The Little Package)
“El Encarguito”, this albums main track is about the little packages of traditional food that nostalgic immigrants in cold countries ask their relatives to send to them. According to Guillermo “it’s a song about the nostalgia of taste; finally the flavor of the land is one thing that immigrants miss the most when far away”. El Encarguito became a compendium of Honduran and Central American traditional food”. However this CD has some of Guillermo’s more mature compositions. Here, Guillermo seems to come closer to develop a very particular sound of his own. This is where Punta and Parranda, garifuna rhythms come to their best expression. There’s also a traditional garifuna song “El Santo Negro” sung in garifuna with Aurelio Martinez , perhaps the best known garifuna singer and songwriter of all times. Fully recorded in La Ceiba, Guillermo and producer Guayo Cedeño where able to have as guests some of the best local musicians including a traditional all women’s garifuna choir, the locally well known “Mala Polilla”, a traditional sorority of sorts that gets together in the towns most important celebrations.

Desde el Fondo del Mar
(From the bottom of the Ocean)
Is a play on words for “From the Bottom of the Heart” this is Guillermo’s first Cd. Recorded in Italy, this is Guillermo’s first official CD. It contains the song “En Mi Pais” which was the first song to propel Guillermo as a national artistic figure in Honduras. The song expresses love for his country, its people and landscape, showing a beautiful yet vulnerable nation.
For years it closed Honduras most popular TV channel and gained him national recognition. The album also contains some of his most popular songs like “Haydee” and “Capitan Morris” based on characters of his native port town of La Ceiba.

Para los Chiquitos
(For the Small ones)
This is a collection of Guillermo´s most solicited songs for children. Its almost a “greatest hits” for the little ones.
When these songs first appeared in cassettes the songs became very popular in public schools to the point where many people who learned about him thought that he only did music for children. It is not surprising to find school plays all over Honduras where children arte singing his songs and dressed as the characters in his songs many of them being rainforest species in danger of extinction.
Guillermo has expressed how due to the lack of productions for children in Central America, our little ones learn first about animals like bears, reindeer and giraffes than about the species in our rich tropical forests.

Costa y Calor.
Even though "Costa y Calor", the song that gives the CD its name is a voice and guitar rendition, this is one of Guillermo´s most representative CDs perhaps because it is one that best features his fusion of garifuna rythms with better known styles like reggae and rock. There are songs in this album that have been part of world wide distribution anthologies. Some of Guillermos most radio-aired songs like "Por Esa Negra and "Luna Llena" are considered very representative of a sound that he has been developing throughout his carreer

Pobre Marinero
(Poor Sailor)
This acoustic Cd recorded by Producer Max Urso in a small warehouse near Guillermo´s home in La Ceiba with a four track recorder, is interestingly one of his best sold Costa Norte Records CDs. Pobre Marinero is a compilation of some this singer songwriters best songs done very naturally accompanied by Guayo Cedeño in a second acoustic guitar and percussionist Camilo Fiallos supporting some of the songs. This is a recording that shows Guillermo’s influence of Latin American “Trova” at its best. In it we also find songs like “Chago” (short in Spanish for the name Santiago) the story of a man who leaves a good job in Honduras for the American dream, only to find himself suffering the cruel hardships of illegal immigrants in the U.S. This is a song that is always solicited in Guillermo’s concerts in Honduras. One everyone in this country can identify with.

"Del Tiempo y el Trópico", Of Time and the Tropics Honduras is an extraordinary voyage of discovery into the heart and soul of the Central American country of Honduras. Three artists – a photographer, a writer and a composer – explore the past and reveal the present of the land in their photographs, writings, and music. Dutch photographer Hannes Wallrafen's images depict Honduran society and the imprint history has left on it. The words of Julio Escoto, one of Honduras most famous writers, give a depth of understanding to the photographs, and the music of Honduran singer and songwriter Guillermo Anderson adds an extra dimension to the exploration of this society. Together, they introduce Honduras and Hondurans to us in a way that is highly imaginative and truthful at the same time. The collaboration of these three artists forms a bridge of friendship between Latin America and Europe, contributing to communication between nations and the solidarity of their people.

This book was initiated by the Organization for Latin America Activities (OLAA), and is co-published by KIT Publishers (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Centro Editorial srl. (San Pedro Sula, Honduras). Of Time and the Tropics – Honduras was realised with the support of 'Hivos'; 'Stichting Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst'; 'Mondriaan Stichting, stimuleringsfonds voor beeldende kunst, vormgeving en museale activiteiten'; and 'NCDO – duurzame wereld'.

Julio Escoto is a novelist and an essay writer. His most recent novel Rey del Albor, Madrugada is seen by international critics of literature as a work of major importance to Central American literature. He has received several literary awards. He currently lives in San Pedro Sula where he is director of publishing house Centro Editorial.

"Bordeando La Costa"
“Following The Coastline” is a collection of travel notes, poems, drawings and stories by Guillermo. In one of the stories, as a teenager, the author witnesses the arrival by sea on a large dugout canoe of a group of musicians to a village. They are there to play in the crowning of the village’s queen of the fair. Their appearance “a combination of rough sailors, adventurers and musicians” marks his life. That is what he aspires to be, a combination of sailor and musician of the Caribbean. Other stories are based on what he has heard from fishermen, and storytellers. There is a list of superstitions of the coast and some autobiographical anecdotes of growing up in the lively and diverse Port Of La Ceiba.(Soon to be published in English)