Tag Archives: The Metalliferous Hills Jug Band

You live in the city…

Compositions,

An English version of “Rock in Milano, Blues at la Rocca” by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, adapted on the fly by Jack O’Malley during the “Rural Citizen Science” session at the ECSA Conference in Vienna (April 4, 2024). A city dweller and a country guy interact on their perceptions of urban and rural dimensions..

You live in the city, where people produce and innovate (x2)

But let me tell you something babe, you live in the city – for me it ain’t that great!

Monday morning, you get on the bus, you go to work, in the same old fuss

Then in the week-end you’re all lined up in cars, for shopping or recreation, but that’s like behind bars..

So you’re living in the city, most beautiful place on the earth

you live the ugly grey old city, but you don’t know what that is worth

You live in the country, you’re a small pin on my map (x2)

We come to see you in the Summer, but with the cold wind we leave with a snap

You’re driving an Ape – and maybe a tractor too

You’re diggin’ and sowin’ – with some of that rural blue

Enjoying the landscape, contemplating the sunset

but your village is dying, and this is something I don’t regret

So you’re living in the country, and you say rural is the best

But I feel fine here in the city, don’t care much about the rest!

Hey guys, don’t you realize, you’re getting nowhere: I ain’t telling no lies

Rural and urban, they have to mediate…

let’s have a common workshop, well: does not that sound great?

When the city folks go rural, and the farmers go to town

With live music for more outreach, and cit-science all around…

Tatti Twist / Jug Band Colline Metallifere

Gran(i)Tour, Videos

Following two teasers, here we go with the full Tatti Twist by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere with its extended crew of biped and quadruped dancers! We hope you like it, and if you like it a lot you can also support our project (click here). For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

In between the grooves, see how the JBCM operates.

I went down to Tuscany looking for a place to be and I found its name Tatti, oh yeah

Then I found myself a house, with a bird a cat and a mouse, and a great big scenic view, and you

Tatti bar (x6)

Se tu balli il twist – con Wolfgang – balli il twist con chi – con Wolgang – se tu balli il twist, o yeah

I play music with my friends, we play music ’till we bend, the amusement never ends, oh yeah

but there’s something that I miss, just to reach my total bliss, and it’s your great big wet kiss, oh yes

(RIT).

More background information about the song

At times we try to sing about somewhat technical topics (e.g. nutrition), in other cases about “cosmic” issues (night sky and light pollution), at times about alternative viewpoints on  “slow mobility”…with the Tatti Twist we decided to take a lighter approach…

Wolfang Scheibe: 77 anni e 3’44” di twist come se non ci fosse un domani.

….we put together our one-string bass player’s track record as a twist dancer (in the Sixties Wolfgang Scheibe used to compete in national dance contests), with the story of many foreign folks who discover Tuscany as a promised land. Unlike other lyrics, where we tend to draw a conclusion, here the story remains suspended, and the beat takes over (but we will write the final lyrics at some point).

Since January we then sent invitations to our community, to do the Twist in their favourite location, and the results of this call was edited in the video. Participation was quite good…we had numerous expressions of interest, and within these, a less-shy gang of around forty people, two dogs, and a horse became our pop-up dance company (we don’t know if a dancing horse has already been seen in a musical video, but we think it is quite rare if not unique!)

The reference to “Tatti” in the lyrics is in fact about two places…one is the village in the territory of Massa Marittima, Southern Tuscany, in the Metalliferous Hills, where two of the band members live. The other is the Tatti Bar (today called “Tatti Stay and See”), a very hip place downtown Stuttgart, Germany, which in fact took its name from the Tuscan hamlet (this story is further detailed in this newspaper article from last year).

The Tatti Twist is one of six songs produced by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere during the Winter, which you will be invited to check out together with the rest of our repertoire while the Spring unfolds, as we approch the June Gran(i)Tour in Germany.

For those of you who would really like to dig deeper, we encourage you to watch the December 2021 show at Radio Deejay Fox (with a transcript in English), and this presentation from last September.

Gran(i)Tour 2024: The Interactive Map

Gran(i)Tour, Interactive Maps

From this interactive map you may explore the various events in the tour (the yellow dots), and get information about other situations and characters related to this mission (friends, twist dancers, grain producers, etc). This map is frequently updated. Last update: Apr. 30, 2024.

The Tattistampa Art Print Day: how did it go?

Compositions

Here are a few shots from the “open door” event with Wolfgang Scheibe and his combined universe of art, agriculture, and music. As a peculiarity, with over 400 events in this celebration, the one in Tatti was the only one in Italy (and, in practice, almost the only one out of German-speaking countries…there was another one in the South of Denmark.

Now, we have a question..how come there are some grains in the picture? Are they ancient? Are they modern? Are they hand-made? To know more you will have to wait for the next episodes of the Jug Band Colline Metallifere! series, or you can write to micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228 if you are curious.

Wolfgang is waiting for you for the International Day of Art Printing (Mar. 17, 2024)

Announcements

Sunday March 17, from 11AM to 6PM, Wolfgang Scheibe AKA Tattistampa, known in the world for his production of hand-made prints, posters and other graphic works, is waiting for you to celebrate the international day of art printing in his secret workshop between Tatti and Meleta, in the rolling hills of Southern Tuscany.

Considering the limited size of the premises, it is necessary to book your visit by Saturday, March 16, 8PM. Please write to micalosapevo@pibinko.org or message on whatsapp or SMS on +393317539228. A few slots are still available.

The day will also be an opportunity to learn about other projects on which Wolfgang is active, and in particular with his Jug Band Colline Metallifere. Some of the band members will be present during the day and, accidentally, there might be musical instruments in the surroundings…who knows what might happen…

But please, book yourr visit by 8PM, Saturday March 16!

In addition to the promo video below, we encourage you to review some of Wolgang’s feats since 2014 in the pibinko.org netowrk (link 1), and with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere (link 2)…combining music, printing, and agriculture there are lots of intersting stories!

Please see also the initial announcement for this event, published on Jan. 31.

For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

To Friends in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg (and surroundings)…

Announcements, Gran(i)Tour

…if you live in Bayern or Baden-Württemberg and you are curious about the Jug Band Colline Metallifere and about stuff we propose about “music & territories”, please contact us for an initiative which will be reaching you in a couple of months: micalosapevo@pibinko.org o 3317539228.

For a refresher:

Please note that for posts after May 2023 the Italian-language version of the sites has a lot more content than the English-language version, so you are encouraged to browse the Italian version..

Gran(i)Tour 2024

Projects

The Jug Band Colline Metallifere goes North with the 2024 GRAN(i)TOUR!

One of the articles about our 2023 Brezel Tour

After the “Geomusical Tour” in 2019 and the “Brezel Tour” in 2023, the “GRAN(i)TOUR” with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere in 2024 is all about grains (Grani in Italian). At the bottom of this page you will find more articles about the development of this project.

The reason for the tour comes from two invitations at festivals in farms commemorating Rudolf Steiner’s answer to the farmers exactly 100 years ago and that point further into our future.

Our band is a music collective from three countries and three generations, based in the Colline Metallifere, the metalliferous hills of Tuscany. We have been working together since 2018. About half of our repertoire consists of our own songs on contemporary topics, all based on folk, blues and rock, and we also play some of the classics in our own interpretation.

In addition to the music, our passions always play a role in our shows: environmental issues, stories about our land, anecdotes about agriculture, and more incredibly strange facts. We do have recorded material, but our strength is live performances, and “Musica&Territorio!” is our motto.

In the photo from left to right:

  • Simone Sandrucci – recording studio expert and music teacher, vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin
  • Wolfgang Scheibe – ex-typesetter with a small printing workshop, long-time biodynamic farmer consultant, one-string bass
  • Dario Canal – educator, songwriter, vocals, guitar, harmonica, washboard, percussion
  • Andrea Giacomelli (aka Jack O’Malley) – Environmental engineer, songwriter, vocals, guitar, percussion

(photo credits: Romina Zago)

The GRAN(i)TOUR 2024 will take us from Maremma to Trentino, Munich and the Black Forest, Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg and the Hohenlohe region. We will be on the road from June 14 to June 30, and then back to Tuscany for more Summer gigs.

The tour is co-sponsored by

Follow us on www.jugbandcm.it or Instagram @jugbandcm.

For more information and booking: jugbandcm@pibinko.org or +393317539228.