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The music of the northwestern Spanish coastal province of Galicia consists of a persistent Celtic strain grafted onto centuries of Portuguese, Spanish, and early music influences. The local mouth-blown bagpipe is called the
gaita and was made famous by
Carlos Núñez. Susana Seivane is descended from generations of pipers and is also a formidable virtuoso, but she has a subtler, more reedy sound than her charismatic countryman. Her debut album was produced by Rodrigo Romani of the supergroup
Milladoiro, the Galician equivalent of the
Chieftains. He and other band members sit in as Seivane leads a faultlessly idiomatic team of Gallegos (Galicians) through a program of rumbas,
xotas, paso dobles,
muñieras (Galician jigs), marches, and
alalás (slow airs). Tin whistles and flutes, squeezeboxes, fiddles, mouth harps, plucked strings, and occasional vocals by the talented Sonia Lebedynski add up to a lighthearted journey through a relatively unspoiled and picturesque musical terrain.
--Christina Roden