Romania - Maramureş & Oltenia

Maramureş is a valley in Northern Romania on the border with Ukraine.  We'll stop here in the small city of  Sighetu Marmaţiei, where singer/songwriter Ducu Bertzi was born in 1955.  He started out with the fiddle at the age of 8, but went on to play the guitar in various rock bands.  He went on to swap his electrical guitar for an acoustic one, singing folk songs, mostly his own compositions and intonations of poems by various writers.  Here is one of his more famous songs called M-am îndrǎgostit numai de ea (I fell in love with her only) from his 2013 album Dor de Duca:

Multi-instrumentalist, multi-media artist and computer scientist Mircea Florian, also known as Florian din Transilvania, was born in the city of Satu Mare in 1949.  Starting off in folk rock he was an early adopter of hippy culture and a experimenter and pioneer of electronic music in the late 1960's.  His music became a blend of Romanian folk with Indian influences and psych rock.  During his career he became increasingly critical of the Ceaucescu regime in Romania and much of his music was censored by the authorities.  In 1986 he defected to West Germany, where he still resides.  Here is an early song of his from his 1971 album Pădure de voie bună called Pădure linistitoare:

Next we are heading to the commune of Podari near Craiova in the Oltenia region of southern Romania.  This is where musician, actor and poet Tudor Gheorghe was born in 1945.  During the Communist times he repeatedly got himself into trouble over his political stance, even getting kicked out of school and later his music being banned by the authorities.  He recorded most of his music live and only accompanied on his guitar or lute.  Later he collaborated with orchestras to give his music a fuller sound.  Here is a short song of his called Doamne la duşmanii mei:

Roma violinist Florea Ciocă (1916-1979) was born in the township of Segarcea in Dolj County of the Oltenia region.  He was in high demand at weddings in his  local area and later rose to national and international prominence and his style is still seen as a benchmark for Gypsy fiddling.  Here is a track which featured on the 2008 compilation The Rough Guide to the Music of Romanian Gypsies called Mierlita cand e bolnava:

That's it for today, next we are exploring the most populous region of Romania, Muntenia.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual musical journey on my Tripline map.