A look back at recordings I made over my career.
Part 19 BLUE DOR by POPELUC CD Steel Carpet Music MATS013
1996
by POPELUC: Ioan POp, PEte Castle, LUCy
Castle.
I was really pleased with this
album, and still am. We recorded it at the end of our tour in 1995 when our
repertoire had really gelled, and released it for the 1996 tour. Most of it was
recorded by Ken Macpherson in Burton,
although a two or three tracks had been recorded at live events in
Maramures by Lucy and Popica (complete with audience participation and dancing
noise) and I added my bits in the studio. There is a good mix of Romanian and
English songs and music and the styles vary between how we did it live to a
couple where we are each playing about 3 different instruments—The Popeluc Big
Band!
By this stage the group were
gaining a tremendous reputation but still fell between two stools. The folk
scene was still wary and we weren’t ‘heavy’ enough for the World Music scene.
(If we had added an electric bass and some African drums we could have conquered
the world! And sounded like everyone else!)
Reviews: “I approached this cd with some trepidation, expecting to be confronted
by impenetrable tunes using unfamiliar scales in complex time-signatures, and
so I was very pleasantly surprised to find the music so accessible and full of
warmth and humour.” Ian Spafford: Stirrings
“A fascinating document of a musical love affair between two seemingly
diverse cultures.” Dave Haslam:Rock’N’Reel:
One of my abiding memories of
this era was playing the final song, Saraca inima mea, which is a much loved
Romanian anthem, at an event at Cecil Sharp House. A huge group of Romanian
musicians and dancers who had been appearing at an eisteddfod dropped in and we
sang that song in the round with a simple circle dance and everyone singing at
the tops of their voices. I was thrashing my guitar as loudly as I could but
couldn’t hear it!
Left: Popeluc at The Big City Bash in Derby Market Place.
Tracks:
Iza Valley Medley
Reynardine
Unde aud cucu cintind
Invirtitas
When I hear the Cuckoo Calling
De baut ca ia ieud
Ma graie lumea pin sat
Horea miresii
Jocul steagului
Jack Orion/Barbatesc din Sapinta
Dupa una beau si doua
Lemeny
Live invirtitas
Saraca inima mea
Listen to Reynardine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3x7POdSrxo
THIS ALBUM IS STILL AVAILABLE FROM PETE'S ON-LINE SHOP
Po
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