Modena City Ramblers (also known as M.C.R.) is an Italian

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

rock band founded in 1991. Their music is heavily influenced by Celtic themes, and can be compared to

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk music, folk and rock music, rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the American fo ...

music. The band has sold over 500,000 albums. Known for their

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in ...

, their lyrics often speak out against the Mafia and

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

Biography

The Modena City Ramblers were formed in 1991 by a group of friends who wanted to play traditional Irish music. The first to join were Alberto Morselli, Giovanni Rubbiani and Alberto Cottica (previously in ''

Lontano da dove ''Lontano da dove'' (''Away from where'') is a 1983 Italian romantic drama film written and directed by Stefania Casini and Francesca Marciano. For this film Monica Scattini was awarded Nastro d'Argento for best supporting actress. Plot Ma ...

''), Chris Dennis (formerly a member of ''

Nomadi Nomadi (or I Nomadi, meaning " Nomads") is an Italian band formed in 1963 and still present on the music scene. Career Origins In 1961, Beppe Carletti and Leonardo Manfredini formed the group I Monelli (‘Urchins’). In 1962, Carletti met Franco ...

''), Filippo Chieli, Franco D'Aniello and Luciano Gaetani from Abazia dei folli''. On

Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...

in 1991, during a concert in a pub in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, they chose the name Modena City Ramblers. The name was an homage to Dublin City Ramblers, an Irish band. In 1992, they were joined by bassist Massimo Ghiacci (formerly in the band ''Plutonium 99''). During the evening of 1 March they recorded their first demo. During a concert at a pub in Carpi, Stefano "Cisco" Bellotti sang "The Wild Rover" for the first time. At this time the Modena City Ramblers became an open company, and have remained so during throughout their history, with almost all members who have left the band returning sporadically to play with the group. Their most famous concert was performed as the opening act for the Pogues in

. Their repertoire has since expanded considerably, including traditional Italian songs as " Bella ciao", " Fischia il vento", and "Contessa". The singer of the group Cisco along with

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Kaba Cavazzuti who also became "a new member of the Modena City Ramblers after changes in the original line-up", released the album of the ‘brother band’ Casa del Vento, titled "900" which came out in February 2001.

Members

The band's lineup has changed many times since their formation. After the first album, singer Alberto Morselli left the band; in 1996 Francesco Moneti replaced Marco Michelini, and Giovanni Rubbiani and Alberto Cottica left the band in 2001. Singer Stefano "Cisco" Bellotti left the band in 2005 after fourteen years. The lineup in 2006 was: * Davide "Dudu" Morandi: singer, bass, acoustic and electric guitar,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The ...

, harmonica * Elisabetta "Betty" Vezzani: singer, acoustic and electric guitar,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thou ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

* Massimo "Ice" Ghiacci: acoustic and electric bass, double bass,

tea chest bass The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses h ...

, sax, backing vocals, acoustic guitar * Franco D'Aniello: flute,

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteri ...

, trumpet, sax, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, percussion * Francesco "Fry" Moneti: acoustic and electric guitar, acoustic,

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described b ...

and Indian violin, banjo,

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, mandolin, backing vocals * Roberto Zeno: drums, percussion, backing vocals, mandolin, acoustic guitar and piano * Arcangelo "Kaba" Cavazzuti: drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, bass,

charango The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish duri ...

, piano, trumpet,Tour 2008

Image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...

shaker, banjo, backing vocals * Luca "Gabibbo" Giacometti (died in 2007):

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

, mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar, backing vocals TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ImageSize = width:1100 height:300 PlotArea = width:900 height:280 bottom:20 left:20 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97) id:grid1 value:rgb(0.86,0.86,0.86) id:grid2 value:gray(0.8) id:bars value:rgb(0.8,0.9,0.96) id:blue1_bars value:rgb(0.5,0.6,0.96) id:blue2_bars value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.96) BackgroundColors = canvas:canvas Period = from:1991 till:2008 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1991 gridcolor:grid1 BarData= #barset:Bandmembers bar:albertino_bar bar:albertone_bar bar:kaba_bar bar:betty_bar bar:chris_bar bar:dudu_bar bar:filippo_bar bar:fry_bar bar:franchino_bar bar:giovanni_bar bar:luciano_bar bar:gabibbo_bar bar:marco_bar bar:tedeschi_bar bar:ice_bar bar:massimo_bar bar:robby_bar bar:cisco_bar PlotData= # set defaults width:14 fontsize:M textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) color:bars bar:albertino_bar from:1991 till:2000 text:"Alberto Cottica" bar:albertone_bar from:1991 till:1995 text:"Alberto Morselli" bar:kaba_bar from:1994 till:2000 color:blue2_bars from:2000 till:2008 color:blue1_bars text:"Arcangelo 'Kaba' Cavazzuti" bar:betty_bar from:2006 till:2008 text:"Betty Vezzani" bar:chris_bar from:1991 till:1994 color:blue2_bars text:"Chris Dennis" bar:dudu_bar from:2006 till:2008 color:blue2_bars text:"Davide 'Dudu' Morandi" bar:filippo_bar from:1991 till:1993 color:blue1_bars text:"Filippo Chieli" bar:fry_bar from:1996 till:2008 text:"Francesco 'Fry' Moneti" bar:franchino_bar from:1991 till:2008 color:blue2_bars text:"Franco D'Aniello" bar:giovanni_bar from:1991 till:2000 from:2002 till:2003 text:"Giovanni Rubbiani" bar:luciano_bar from:1991 till:1996 text:"Luciano Gaetani" bar:gabibbo_bar from:2002 till:2007 color:blue1_bars text:"Luca 'Gabibbo' Giacometti" bar:marco_bar from:1991 till:1996 text:"Marco Michelini" bar:tedeschi_bar from:1991 till:1993 color:blue2_bars text:"Marco Tedeschi" bar:ice_bar from:1991 till:2008 color:blue1_bars text:"Massimo 'Ice' Ghiacci" bar:massimo_bar from:1996 till:1998 from:2000 till:2002 text:"Massimo Giuntini" bar:robby_bar from:1994 till:2008 color:blue2_bars text:"Roberto Zeno" bar:cisco_bar from:1992 till:2006 text:"Stefano 'Cisco' Bellotti"

Discography

Album

*1994 – ''Riportando tutto a casa'' *1996 – ''La grande famiglia'' *1997 – ''Terra e libertà'' *1998 – ''Raccolti'' *1999 – ''Fuori campo'' *2002 – ''Radio Rebelde'' *2004 – ''¡Viva la vida, muera la muerte!'' *2005 – ''Appunti partigiani'' *2006 – ''Dopo il lungo inverno'' *2008 – ''Bella ciao – Italian Combat Folk for the Masses'' *2009 – ''Onda libera'' *2011 – ''Sul tetto del mondo'' *2013 – ''Niente di nuovo sul fronte occidentale'' *2014 – ''Venti'' *2015 – ''Tracce Clandestine''

EPs

*1998 – ''Cent'anni di solitudine'' *1999 – ''L'Italia ai tempi dei Modena City Ramblers'' *2003 – ''Modena City Remix'' *2003 – ''Gocce'' (for Acqua per la Pace) *2004 – ''El presidente''

Rarities

*1992 – ''On the first day of march...Live demo'' – autoproduced demotape *1993 – ''Combat Folk'' – autoproduced demotape *2000 – ''Il resto raccolto'' – recorded only for fan club

DVD

*2004 – ''Clan Banlieue'' – twelve years of songs, concerts, interviews, journey, unreleased videos

Participations

*1995 – ''Tributo ad Augusto'' (CGD) – with ''L'atomica cinese'' *1995 – ''Materiale resistente'' – with '' Bella ciao'' *1995 – ''I disertori'' – a tribute to

Ivano Fossati Ivano Alberto Fossati (born 21 September 1951) is an Italian pop singer from Genoa. He was a member of the progressive rock group Delirium and has worked with Fabrizio De André, Riccardo Tesi, Anna Oxa, Mia Martini, Ornella Vanoni, Shirley Ba ...

– play ''Gli amanti d'Irlanda'' *1999 – ''A come Ambiente'' (

La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...

)- with ''Madre Terra'' *2002 – ''Piazza Carlo Giuliani ragazzo'' – with ''La legge giusta'' (inspired by the

27th G8 summit The 27th G8 summit was held in Genoa, Italy, on 20–22 July 2001 and is remembered as the peak of the worldwide anti-globalization movement as well as for human rights crimes against demonstrators. Overview The Group of Seven ( G7) was an unoffi ...

) *2002 – ''Lontano'' – by Landscape Prayers *2003 – ''Balla veloce vivi lento'' – with ''Le lucertole del folk'' *2007 – ''Tre colori'' by Graziano Romani – with ''Spiriti Liberi''; ''Stesso Viaggio Stessa Città''; ''Corre Buon Sangue''. *2007 – ''Nessuno oltraggi nessuno'' – with ''Socialdemocrazia'' by Gang, live version.

Collaborations

* Several of the Ramblers' songs, such as "Cent'anni di solitudine", "Macondo Express", and "Remedios la Bella" are inspired by the 1967 novel '' One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

. * The song "Il bicchiere dell'addio" features Irish singer

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part of ...

. The Ramblers later recorded a version of "The Great Song of Indifference" in Emiliano-Romagnolo language, inspired by Geldof's version 1990 hit from Vegetarians of Love album. * The Ramblers' album ''Appunti Partigiani'' features collaborations with many artists, including

Goran Bregović Goran Bregović (born 22 March 1950) is a recording artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the most internationally known modern musicians and composers of the Slavic-speaking countries in the Balkans, and is one of the few former Yug ...

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...

, Moni Ovadia,

Piero Pelù Pietro "Piero" Pelù (born 10 February 1962) is an Italian singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the Italian band Litfiba. He was born in Florence. In July 1999, Pelù quit Litfiba. In 2000, he released his first solo album ''N ...

, and Francesco Guccini.

References

External links

Official websiteOfficial fan club
{{Authority control Italian folk music groups Folk rock groups Musical groups established in 1991 Musical groups from Emilia-Romagna Folk punk groups Celtic music groups 1991 establishments in Italy