Sicilian Folk Music

Sunday morning after Mass was when my father turned on the record player and played his collection of Sicilian folk music. I was six years old, and the sound of these foreign songs filling our apartment in Melbourne made me uncomfortable. Even then I realized that this music separated us from our neighbors; it made us different. I wanted to be the same as everyone else. I wanted to be Australian.

Things have changed. I grew up and learned to appreciate the richness of all cultures, including my father's. Now I've come to a place where it's time to fully explore my Italian heritage. And music is part of that journey. It's been wonderful to rediscover Sicilian folk music on the Internet, and realize that those songs still live in my memory. I even remember (or mis-remember) some of the words.

Here are a couple of examples of Sicilian folk music I found recently on YouTube: