SLAVONIAN TRAVELING BAND
Gone Gypsy (Slavonic Cultural Center)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Here in the upper left hand corner of the US, we have an annual event called the Northwest Folklife Festival. Every year a few thousand pickers, singers and grinners of various stripes turn out to perform for a couple hundred thousand onlookers over three days in Seattle. There's bluegrass, old time fiddlers, contemporary folk and all kinds of other things. Among those other things, some of the stuff I enjoy and admire most are the groups that get together to preserve the music of various ethnic heritages. Mostly this is music played for the love of it - despite the expansion of interest in "world music," that market is still pretty limited.

The Slavonian Traveling Band is such a group. They're an octet of folks committed to the preservation of traditional music from the Balkan countries. Gone Gypsy includes songs from Macedonia, Vojvodina, Romania and Serbia, songs that evoke powerful emotions and inspire spirited dance. Songs you'll never hear on a commercial radio station. Songs they play for the love of them. They should be encouraged, because what they're doing is encouraging. And they do it very well.

The Slavonian Traveling Band is sponsored by the Slavonic Cultural Center in San Francisco, which you can reach at www.SlavonicWeb.org. If you do, I'm sure they can tell you how to find this CD. It's worth checking out, if only to hear Dick Dale's "Miserlou" played by a tamburitza orchestra.

Track List:

Endelesi * Caje Sukarije * Delem, Delem * Rromano Oro * U Stombolu Na Bosforu * Yovanno * Rumelaj * Vlainja/Sumatovac Kolo * Miserlou * Verka/Pilem, Pilem * Meda Sijum Ternori * Romano Horo * Me Sem Corro

© 2000 - Shaun Dale