While outside observers continue to speculate about Cuba's lilting revolution, inside there's at least one voice that still recalls the days of “Che.” Not just Fidel Castro or his brother Raúl, the newly anointed leader of the island nation, but a folk singer, Silvio Rodríguez.

Rodríguez, forerunner among Latin America's nueva trova troubadours, will bring the song revolution back to Nicaragua on Sunday, at Pharaoh's Casino, in a concert that could be one of his last.

Rodríguez announced the end to his more than 40 years of live gigs is near, preferring to dedicate his time to composing, “which is what I like most,” newswire EFE quoted him saying at a press conference in Guatemala.

Two decades have passed since his last Nicaraguan jam – in the days of President Daniel Ortega's first run at ruling the country with a Sandinista program. By then the contagious romantic rebel songs of nueva trova had already swept Latin America several times over since their inception in the 1960s, taking cues from North American folk icons Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Later, Baez would reciprocate, famously rendering Carlos Puebla's ode to a revolutionary, “Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara,” a Marxist hymn that is also a proud part of Rodríguez's repertoire.

Another song Rodríguez became famous for, “Ojalá ” (“I Wish”), also became an anthem for the genre and is heard to this day in smoky music clubs throughout the Spanish-speaking world. “Ojalá they'd wipe you out suddenly, not to see you any more, not to see you ever again” – harsh words sung tenderly by the Cuban troubadour, along with sweet, measured guitar picking. Fans will tell you he sings those lyrics in defiance of Cuba's enemies such as the United States.

During the Guatemala leg of his tour, Rodríguez said he couldn't bow out from performing without a proper farewell to his fans in Central America. “I didn't want my foray on the stage, which has carried me along for 40 years, without visiting those countries that for me are a cultural, historical and fraternal reference point,” EFE quoted him saying.

Accompanying Rodríguez will be fellow Cuban trovador Vicente Feliú, according to the daily El Nuevo Diario.