Los peces en el río

Traditional villancico from Spain, composer unknown

Chrissie started her journey into learning Spanish in the beginning of 2016. At Christmastime, of course she asked her new friends from Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico for their favorite holiday songs in her new language. This song, a interesting story about how even the fish wanted to see the baby Jesus when his mother was bathing him in the river, always came up. Jimmy Joe fell in love with the music so much that he took over the singing, even though he still doesn't speak much. But his years of ear-training classes at the Berklee college of music gave him the ability to render an almost-perfect accent.

Jimmy Joe is also a school bus driver. Chrissie had been seeking a native speaker to sing with her in Spanish. One day, Jimmy Joe came home and said he'd met a fellow bus driver, from Colombia, who sings. Diana Naranjo and her husband Carlos became fast friends. It was a very special treat and honor to have Diana's beautiful voice (and authentic Spanish!) on this song!

Guitar: Jimmy Joe Natoli
Bass: Carl LoSchiavo
Vocals: Jimmy Joe Natoli, Diana Naranjo, Chrissie Natoli
Percussion: Tommy Byrd

Translation:

The Virgen is brushing her hair
Between curtains
Her hair is of gold
And her comb of fine silver

Chorus:
But look at how the fish in the river drink
Look at how they drink to see the god who was born
They drink and drink and come back again and again
The fish in the river, to see god incarnate

The virgen is washing diapers
And hangs them on the rosemary
The birds are singing
And the rosemary blooms

The virgen is bathing
With a little piece of soap
They nip at her hands
Hands of my heart