Viva Santa Liberata

For this album the Palermo-born, and politically concerned folk singer, guitarist and tambourine player Politi dives into the archives. The songs are performed in an unadorned style of pure solo singing, sometimes taking a storyteller approach, or in an accomplished acoustic trio involving voice, melodeon, tambourine, fiddle and mandola, occasionally augmented by jaw harp, mandolin and guitar. Though Politi's warm-toned voice remains at the fore throughout.

Women's lives are centre stage in this release whose title, while seemingly cheering the patron saint Santa Liberata, intends to arouse thoughtful reflections on contrasting issues, such as freedom and holiness, female natural strength and the oppressiveness of a patriarchal society. The six self-penned episodes of narrative about ‘Storia di Ginuveffa’ act as a recurrent thread. There are protest songs, peasant stornelli, love songs, three exquisite Mediterranean-oriented numbers entitled ‘Lidia’, and laments of solfatari (sulfur miners). Sicily is the musical focus in most of the tracks, although the melody and original lyrics of the intimate ‘Ciatu Mè’, a mother's cry for her emigrated son, come from the Aegean islands. Truly a genuine album from a brave artist.