Dinner in Polidroso

1. Melina's Bath pt. 1 (3:19 /64kbps mp3)
It begins with stretching..limbering up in 9/8 time, as the bath is drawn..

2. My Serpentine Road (4:12 /64kbps mp3)
The tragedy of a broken bouzouki and a stolen baglama may be enough to turn anyone's back on society, but life is a mystery and it's pathways may be straight or serpentine. Our task then is to observe, to listen, and who knows..you may encounter sheep on your path.

3. Yiati Thes Na M'Afisis (3:52 /64kbps mp3)
A belly dance song in 4/4 referred to as a tsifteteli. Often danced to by Greeks when carnal pleasures are in the ascendant. It's simple: "I want you..look at me..want me..let's do the tsifteteli."

4. Mersini (4:00 /64kbps mp3)
On the Island of Crete, between Agios Nikolaos & Sitia, there is a village called Mersini. The sign says "The Best Village in Greece" and perhaps it is. They welcomed me there as if I were family, and inspired me to create this rhythmically diverse little tune. - Ben Johnson

5. Oso Varoun Ta Sidera (As Heavy As Iron) (4:31 /64kbps mp3)
This is an old folk song from the island of Crete, bereaving the loss of a loved one.

6. Khalmea Taqsim (Improvisation) (1:28 /64kbps mp3)
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries...

7. Pente Hronia Dikasmenos (Five Years in the Slammer) (3:16 /64kbps mp3)
Gentikoule was a notorious prison in Northern Greece near Thessaloniki, during the first half of the 20th century. To relieve the stress of incarceration, the composer turns to smoking the hookah pipe and upon his release, his thoughts are to get right down to business and have another drag.

8. Dinner in Polidroso (7:28 /64kbps mp3)
An aged Byzantine exile ponders the roads of life and the fate which has brought him to this place, this plate of moussaka. Polidroso is a village in Epirus (Northwestern Greece), East of Corfu. It is the ancestral home of la famille Diochnos.

9. Evil Eye (3:11 /64kbps mp3)
Written in the tradition of a kalamatiano in 7/8 time; the lyrics were inspired by the book "Ariadne's Dream" by the Greek-Canadian author Tess Fragoulis.

10. Oli Rembetes Tou Dounia (All the Rembetes in the World) (4:17 /64kbps mp3)
A song essentially about knowing who you are, and who your friends are, and being comfortable within your tribe. The cool seek out the cool.

11. Melina's Bath pts. 2&3 (5:58 /64kbps mp3)
What began as an exercise in 9/8, developed into a two part act of our fictitious heroine, disrobing..cleansing herself..followed by an inquiry..the bouzouki player wonders if he could drink her bath water.

Architects of Narghilé

1. Ela Hanoumaki Mou (My Little Harem Girl) (3:10 /64kbps mp3)
Ela Hanoumaki Mou (My Little Harem Girl) Hanoumaki is the diminutive of the Turkish word for "lady", usually referring to the women who frequented the harems or hashish dens of the Ottoman Empire. Here, the singer is asking his loved one to recount those charged days and nights in Smyrna at their old haunt, and to try to rekindle them.

2. Mikros Aravoniastika (Engaged Too Young) (3:23 /64kbps mp3)
A "mangas" (hipster) bemoans the loss of his independence at a young age to an even younger bride. The singer is not so much down on marriage, rather his youth has ill prepared him for what is about to transpire.

3. Strawberry Moussaka Forever (5:09 /64kbps mp3)
Two protagonists, stranded on a desert island: a fervent Umm Kalthum and a reticent Sergio Leone. With one foot firmly planted in the west and the other ever so precariously in the east, the plot unfolds . . . to one the song is a fruit, to the other it is a casserole.

4. To Haremi Sto Hammam (4:19 /64kbps mp3)
The sweet life of the privileged class, filled with narghilé, Turkish hash and harem girls dancing the tsifteteli. Considering that composer Anestis Delias died at the young age of 32 both impoverished and a victim of drugs he isn't bitter about the life he has no chance of ever enjoying- rather he speaks of "la dolce vita" in an almost celebratory but sardonic way.

5. Where Have All The Years Gone (3:43 /64kbps mp3)
A nostalgic travelogue of the old districts of Athens. Sadly, those places (along with the years) have come and gone and the manges have grown old.

6. Nihtose Horis Fegari (Night Without Moon) (7:09 /64kbps mp3)
A revolutionary song, seminal in the history of Rembetika music, written by a 21 year old Apostolos Kaldaras, and eventually banned in 1949. It captured the harsh conditions of the Greek civil war. Night descended without moon, the darkness is deep but a brave young man cannot sleep The door opens and the door closes with a heavy sigh If only I could guess the sorrow in his heart What can he be waiting for from night until morning By his narrow cell window which is lit by a candle

7. Melina Visits the Slums of Skopje (1:06 /64kbps mp3)
Rhythms of Macedonia, the eternally disputed crossroads of the Balkans. The thirteen apostles loose the reins of apocalypse, freeing the iconic image of Melina lifting her wings ever so heavenward towards Skopje. Translation: more or less a Bulgarian Ruchenitsa in 13/16, 27 bars in length and runs at just under 1:02 minutes.

8. Mavra Matia (Dark Eyes) (3:24 /64kbps mp3)
A song in 7/8 time about love gone wrong, and the existential reverberations felt by the protagonist. The eyes which once bewitched him are now silent though the night.

9. Tsifteteli D Hijaz (3:35 /64kbps mp3)
is a sensuous rhythm closely associated with the belly dance. The "D" in the title refers to the key of the song and "Hijaz" is the road (scale or mode) to be traveled. The song was written in the 70's by Leonardos Mbournelis - the "Jeff Beck"of the bouzouki, who possessed a phenomenal set of sideburns and an insatiable appetite for rocking tsiftetelia.

10. PSAROPOULA (CAPTAIN A. ZEPO) (3:18 /64kbps mp3)
The story of fisherman and apha-male Andreas Zepo. While most fishing boats will cast their nets into the water yet catch nothing, Captain Zepo is able to reel in a bountiful catch of squid.

11. Mes tis Polis To Hammam (In the City's Bathhouses) (4:15 /64kbps mp3)
This song is essentially track #4 put in a blender. The voice of the universal interlocutor speaks from Mt. Olympus, assuring us all is fine with the cosmos. The key is changed, the tempo punched up and the bouzouki flanged, but the road rocks all the way to the Parthenon.

12. Oi Manges Then Iparhoun Pia (the hipsters have left the building) (4:47 /64kbps mp3)
The song tells of a neighbourhood which was razed to make way for new development, forcing the manges to pack up and move on. A song about the negative effects of "progress" on the lives of individuals, through the loss of community, friendships and the disintegration of family. The manges don't exist anymore The train line cleared them away With bravado they've weighed anchor And their narghilé extinguished. Though the lyrics may express a resignation to fate, in tempo and mood the song is defiant....an anthem of the dispossessed.