Dialect is the Blood, the Last Thing to Die
Peppe Voltarelli
Calabrian singer-songwriter Peppe Voltarelli appeared on the Modo di Bere Podcast in early 2023 to share his music and his reflections on his local dialect.
Listen: ▷S1E4 Dialect is a Luxury
He returns to Modo di Bere to talk about Calabria.
The “Sense of Place” magazine series celebrates the wine regions filmed for Modo di Bere TV.
MODO DI BERE: What is the name of the town where you grew up?
VOLTARELLI: It's called Crosia, on the Ionian Coast in the province of Cosenza
MODO DI BERE: Tell me about Calabria like I’ve never heard of it before.
VOLTARELLI: It's a beautiful, wild, romantic, damned region in the middle of the mediterranean sea.
MODO DI BERE: If you brought me to Calabria to show me around, what would we be looking at? Landscapes, plants, animals, structures, people?
VOLTARELLI: I like places that haven't been beaten down by tourism; unfinished buildings, depopulated historical centers, in these places you can discover treasures.
“‘What does your dialect mean to you?’
’The blood. The last thing to die.”
MODO DI BERE: On a typical day from your life in Calabria, what are the sounds that you hear?
VOLTARELLI: The sounds of the sea, or the mountain wind. Cities are small, in cities you can hear the sound of cement, of the gold, of the gray.
MODO DI BERE: What are the smells that you smell?
VOLTARELLI: The smell of earth after rain, or the smell of smoking chimneys in the mountain villages in winter, or in the spring the smell of wild dogs and broom flowers.
MODO DI BERE: If I could hold Calabria in my hands, what would I be reaching out to touch?
VOLTARELLI: A rock by the sea, not easy to caress or walk upon.
MODO DI BERE: If I ask you to name the flavors of Calabria, what memories come to mind?
VOLTARELLI: Mandarin oranges, wild blackberries, the smell of musk used in christmas nativity scenes, and the smell of scorched earth moistened by the rain.
MODO DI BERE: Let’s also speak about the flavor of the language, the local way of speaking. What does it sound like? Can you teach me a very local saying or phrase?
VOLTARELLI: There are many different dialects and accents in Calabria, more than a hundred. the words change from village to village, even with extremely small distance. “Miscate ‘ccù ri megli e tia e fanne i spisi.” Surround yourself with people who are better than you and they’ll pay for your groceries.
My father always said that.
Modo di Bere creator/host Rose Thomas Bannister visited Schiavonea beach in Calabria to speak with traditional fishermen for Modo di Bere TV after Voltarelli told her about such sailors and playing his song “Marinai” on the Modo di Bere podcast.
VOLTARELLI: It's blood. The last thing that will die.
MODO DI BERE: When you dream about Calabria, what do you dream about?
VOLTARELLI: Of escaping, running away, never to return.
MODO DI BERE: Is there something you wish people would understand about Calabria?
VOLTARELLI: Yes, the garbage bags. People shouldn't dump them on the side of the street, because then when wild dogs go to eat from the trash, they cross the street and it often causes car accidents. People have died, and it's not the street's fault, it's the garbage bag's fault.
Peppe Voltarelli is a Calabrian singer, multifaceted character, songwriter, ironic and incisive writer and actor. Active since 1994 as founder and leader of "Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti", a cult Italian new folk band. As a soloist he has released five studio albums, nine live albums and four soundtracks.
He won the Targa Tenco three times with “Ultima notte a Mala Strana” in 2010 as best dialect album and with “Voltarelli canta Profazio” in 2016 as best interpreter album, and for the 2021 album Planetario, a collection of timeless songs published by Squilibri.
He was the leading actor and co-author of the film "The true legend of Tony Vilar" by Giuseppe Gagliardi, the first Italian mokumentary. He boasts collaborations with Claudio Lolli, Teresa De Sio, Sergio Cammariere and Bandabardo and Amy Denio.
Peppe and Rose Thomas met at a Brooklyn wine shop when he was in town recording the album “La grande corsa verso Lupionòpolis.”
Interview translated from Italian by Giulia Àlvarez-Katz
