Wine Makes Blood: Sicilian-American Folksinger Michela Musolino

As a drummer, storyteller, singer and culture-keeper, Michela Musolino is heir to sacerdotesse, the Sicilian priestesses depicted on ancient vessels leading the party with their jingle-bedazzled drums. As a Sicilian-American child in New Jersey, Michela couldn't stand not understanding what all the grown-ups were laughing about. She made the study of Sicilian language and culture her life's work even before she started to sing. Michela shares her deep experience with Sicilian folk instruments, Italian poetry, the history of wine as medicine, and a sweet vision of every pre-commercialization Italian farmer who made--and still makes--wine for "family consumption."

Download Michela's records and check out her tour schedule at her site: www.michelamusolino.com
The fairly new denomination of Gutturnio, a region in Emilia Romagna where Michela reports they drink wine out of a bowl.
Another Sicilian band that Michela has worked with, I Beddi
Here is an interesting paper about the high proportion of women included in Alberto Favara's "Corpus Favara," the ethnomusicological document of 1,090 Sicilian folk songs that Favara documented at the turn of the 20th century.

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Music composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou: www.oumusic.bandcamp.com
Audio recorded and edited by Rose Thomas Bannister with assistance from Steve Silverstein.
ssilverstein@earthlink.net