Chalar was a folk music singer in
Uruguay. He especially played and sang
Milonga,
Serranera, media Serranera, Valsesito criollo. The lyrics of the songs he wrote had to do with the everyday country man and everyday life. At the age of 9, he started taking guitar lessons with professor Gregorio Rodríguez in Fernando Sor Institute in Montevideo. When he was 15, he started to love country life and folk music. He started to compose his own songs with some Southern Brazilian music influence. He was later influenced by
Atahualpa Yupanqui. At the age of 17, he had his first gig, singing folk music songs and playing the guitar and the piano. He played in
Bahia, Brazil in 1984, together with
Hugo Marmolejo and
Omar Sanz (keyboards). In 1958, he met
Osiris Rodríguez Castillos. In 1961 he recorded his first album, with the single "
Gurí pescador". He took part in music festivals in Uruguay and
Argentina, and he represented Uruguay in the World Folk Festival in Mexico in 1968. In 1974,
Jorge Cafrune invited him to the
Cosquín Festival in Argentina. From 1978 on, he worked with
Santos Inzaurralde,
Wenceslao Varela,
Lucio Muniz and
Rubén Lena. He took part in many music festivals in
Brazil,
Argentina,
Paraguay,
Ecuador,
Mexico, the
United States and Spain. In 1980,
Omar Sanz talked Charlar into including a keyboard and join a music group with
Hugo Marmolejo. Chalar's most famous single is "Minas y Abril". He composed several popular Uruguayan folk music songs such as: • Pida patrón -with Wenceslao Varela (1993) • El Pedido -with Wenceslao Varela (1993) • La del Templao (1993)*this is incorrect, Del Templao was written by Rubén Lena • Atadito -with Santos Inzaurralde (1996) • Calagualero (Album Minas y Abril) In his 30 years of artistic career, he recorded 20 records. == References ==