Meuseucca Servadze

From Piedmont Teres Aoutes (Piedmont Highlands) comes this fresh force in Italian folk music. Made up of singer and mandolinist Mario Poletti (from Lou Dalfin) and bassist Fabrizio Carletto (from Lou Seriol), this string band create originals inspired by dances and songs from the Western Italian Alps. They blend in bluegrass, blues, rock’n’roll and bal folk. In their third offering, Meuseucca Servadze, Tatè Nsongan (from Turin multicultural band Mau Mau) adds his percussion and West-African touch to the quartet featuring guitars, mandolins, mandola, banjo, fiddles, bass and Hammond organ.

They are storytellers, singing in Franco-Provençal, local Occitan dialect and Piedmontese, crafting tales from the borders, of ordinary chaps. In opener ‘Mi Sun del Carignan’, a Piedmontese soldier ends up fighting the Iroquois under the French flag, or there's ‘Viva Farinet’, about a forger, Joseph-Samuel Farinet, who minted coins to give to the poor. Elsewhere, we learn of ‘San Fagnan’, a slacker saint unwilling to help others. The title-track (which translates as raw/savage music) is a bourrée dance with lyrics praising sincere music that is as authentic as the communities from which it originates. The songs are musically structured over swirling, merry dances, such as the waltz, courenta and scottisch. The Breton-inflected and reggae-flavoured ‘Ma Chansun’ is another standout, an autobiographical celebration of wandering musicians. Fresh mountainous vibes to stir you up.