Smithsonian Folkways shines a spotlight on the South American country of Uruguay with Los Gauchos de Roldán: Button Accordion and Bandoneón Music from Northern Uruguay.

Accomplished accordionist Walter Roldán leads dance songs inherited from his father and grandmother. This small nation situated between Argentina and Brazil now shares its much-loved, yet little-known, down-home rural dance music with the world.

Attention Washington DC! You're invited to a FREE album-release event Thursday, February 23, at the Embassy of Uruguay featuring live music, dancing, and light refreshments. RSVP via email to cultural@uruwashi.org.

Subscriber Discount! - Enter code SFGAUCHOS and save 20% off retail price on this CD or album download through February 29

Get a Free Download of "Como mi suegra (Like My Mother-in-Law)"

Watch a mini-documentary about Los Gauchos de Roldán

Los Gauchos de Roldán is the 34th release in the Tradiciones/Traditions series that showcases the diverse musical heritage from Latin America.

Inspired by traditional son jarocho music of Veracruz, Mexico, and spiked with urban rhythms, rock, and R&B, East LA Chicano group Quetzal will release Imaginaries, its first album on Smithsonian Folkways, on February 28, 2012.

Watch video for "Todo Lo Que Tengo (All That I Have)"

Listen to the title-track, "Imaginaries"

Attention Los Angeles! Buy tickets for the album-release concert at Fais Do Do, Friday, March 2

Each month we’ll ask a trivia question; email your answer, name, and address with the subject "February Trivia" to SmithsonianFolkways@si.edu by February 29, 2012, and a randomly selected entrant with the correct answer will win a free CD of his or her choice!

February Question: The new album from Los Gauchos de Roldán features both the accordion and bandoneón. What is the main difference between these two free-reed aerophones?

Congratulations to last month's winner, Mark from Fairview Park, OH, who correctly answered "A Christmas Story, written and narrated by Jean Shepherd" to the question: The Smithsonian Folkways collection contains more than just music. It features hundreds of poetry, interview, nature, and sound effects albums. One example, Jean Shepherd Reads Poems of Robert Service, features Jean Shepherd's eminently recognizable voice. In what perennial Christmas movie is Shepherd's voice heard?

• Watch a new mini-documentary featuring Dan Milner, artist and producer of Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea and Civil War Naval Songs.
• Ella Jenkins's album A Life of Song was named a "Notable Recording by Children" by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.
• Bill C. Malone, author of "Country Music, U.S.A.," recently published Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger's Life and Musical Journey, a biography of the prolific Smithsonian Folkways recording artist and documentarian.