Morgan O'Shaughnessey
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Orujo: the clear liquid poetry of the Galician Countryside

NEW ALBUM AVAILABLE SOON IN WIDE RELEASE

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Crooked - adj, adv, expletive. Said of any tune that has an unusual number of beats within its style. A delight to the ears and a devilry to the dancer!

“Some Roots Grow Crooked” is a collaboration that explores the relationship between ancient and modern folk music. Selections from the Medieval Cantigas de Santa Maria are paired with contemporary tunes from modern Galicia. A handful of tunes from distantly related musical cultures are also presented because of their crooked nature and their uncanny likeness to the Galician tunes.

The Cantigas de Santa Maria are a 13th-century collection of 420 poems with musical notation and rich iconography, attributed to Alfonso X “El Sabio” (The Wise). Most of the poems are elaborate and fanciful tales of everyday life in which the Virgin Mary plays a miraculous role. Excellent translations of texts, which make for highly enjoyable reading material, may be found at the Oxford Cantigas de Santa Maria Database.

This album was recorded in early midsummer beneath a crooked old oak tree in a small yurt in the Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon. The occasional songbird may be heard from time to time as well as one delightfully in-tune car that passed by at just the perfect moment during Vals Taramundi. We hope that you enjoy the rustic beauty of the tunes as much as we enjoyed performing them for you in such a wild and beautiful setting.

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