Mulieres Gargantiche LIVE in Cisternino Puglia, 14 July, 2018

Here is the first semi-decent video from last Saturday's concert in Cisternino (Puglia) by the fantastic all-woman group Mulieres Garganiche, from the Gargano area of far northern Puglia, a cultural area far removed from the Salento around Lecce. The predominant genre is the tarantella, but the gargano-style of tarantella which is characterized by a strong, quick rhythmic character, driven by the percussive chitarra batente (a forcefully strummed 10-string guitar), the rapid syllabic singing, and, typically, percussion accompaniment from the tamburello, but most often, castagnole/castinets. This group began a number of years ago, the brainchild of Valentina Latiano who gathered five other multi-talented women to form the first all-woman group in the gargano where this music had formerly been dominated, at least in the public sense, by men. This is the style of music that first attracted me to the music of southern Italy, which in turn, convinced me to live in Puglia! Talk about the power of music! (I converted this to sepia tone which helped the light balance...I had over-exposed this video, sorry!) Thanks to ALL the members of Mulieres Garganiche for their welcoming, generous smiles, but most of all, for the fantastic music!