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Mississippi and Mali. The Delta blues and the mesmerizing music of West Africa. Those are the sounds and spirits that struck Piers Faccini to the core, shaping his expressive, intimate songs. But with his Anglo-Italian heritage, you can also hear English folk songs and old Naples rhythms in his music, as well as lyrical debts to Sufi poetry.
We first met Piers when he wrote theme music for the pilot episode of our upcoming PBS series, SOUND TRACKS. We’d heard his dark warning, “A Storm is Going to Come,” on “Grey’s Anatomy” and we knew he’d toured with Ben Harper and Amadou and Mariam. For “Quick Hits,” he agreed to perform three songs and to talk about his new album, “My Wilderness.”
Don't miss other Quick Hits starring Abigail Washburn, Seun Kuti, Dengue Fever, Charles Bradley & Sharon Jones, Helene Grimaud, Jovanotti, KT Tunstall, Meklit Hadero, Ozomatli, and Seu Jorge. For more info visit Sound Tracks's site.
Piers Faccini Performs “No Reply”
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Piers Faccini Performs “A New Morning”
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Interview with Piers Faccini
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Piers Faccini Performs “Two Grains of Sand”
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Piers Faccini Slideshow
On tour in San Francisco, Piers Faccini settles into an old Victorian home and talks to SOUND TRACKS reporter Mirissa Neff about his Roma gypsy great-grandmother, his early infatuation with the Smiths, and the profound influence that the Delta blues and West African music have had on his song writing and musical style. He pays special homage to bluesman Skip James, whose songs were rediscovered by Sixties rockers like Cream, and to the great, mournful singer from Mali, Boubacar Traore.
Faccini also talks about his feeling of never quite fitting in, his penchant for melancholy music (“It makes me happy!”), and his song “Tribe” which has an epic sweep, with mighty powers collapsing, people fleeing across deserts, and a kind of bluesy, gospel chorus pleading for release: “How long?”
Piers Faccini’s website: http://www.piersfaccini.com/
Listen to Piers Faccini’s SOUND TRACKS theme song, “1,000 Miles”: http://www.pbs.org/opb/soundtracks/music/music.php
Hear SOUND TRACKS reporter Marco Werman’s story about Boubacar Traore on PRI’s “The World”: http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/malian-singer-boubacar-traore/
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