Renowned Spanish folk group La Musgaña began as a street band in Madrid. For years, La Musgaña has developed an idiosyncratic style of performing traditional Castilian music. It stayed away from the stereotypical rondalla arrangements used by many artists who lacked the imagination to renovate Castilian roots music.
The first recording by the group was El Diablo Cojuelo (The Lame Devil), released in 1988 by the Sonifolk label. It was an instrumental album except for the ballad (romance) “Un soldado menos.”
That same year, La Musgaña participated at the Muestra Nacional de Folk para jovenes interpretes (National Folk Music Showcase for young performers), which took place in Santiago of Compostela. The group won the first prize for contemporary folk music. La Musgaña’s performance was videotaped by TVE (Spanish National TV). Thanks to this award, the group was given the opportunity to record another album, this time for RTVE’s label. El Paso de la Estantigua was the group’s first recording released in CD format.
In spite of having two albums, making a living with the group was a struggle. La Musgaña had to combine its few paid live performances with busking in the streets. The band played frequently at Madrid’s famous Retiro Park to make some extra money. At the same time, La Musgaña carried out some international tours, especially through Great Britain, where they performed at numerous clubs and festivals.
The decision of professionalizing the group’s career motivated some changes in the line-up. José Maria Climent and Rafa Martin did not want to become full time musicians and left the group. They were replaced by two veterans of Madrid’s folk and world music scene: Luis Delgado and Cuco Perez.
By then, a third album had been recorded and it was released in 1991 by a small label called Lady Alicia Records. Its title human was Lubican, a tribute to the Iberian lynx. The album featured the original line-up with Luis Delgado as a guest on one piece. There were also other well known guests, on vocals, Manuel Luna and Javier Bergia. However, when the album was released, the line-up had changed and the back cover photo included Cuco Perez and Luis Delgado as members of the group.
The next recording was for TVE, which dedicated one episode of its series Arte y artistas (Art and Artists) to the band. In 1992 La Musgaña recorded three new pieces destined to be included as a bonus in the reissue in CD of their first album, El Diablo Cojuelo.
In 1993, the band participated in a collective CD dedicated to the Camino de Santiago (Santiago Route). The title of the album was Hek Sant Jakez, released by the Shamrock label (now owned by Schott Music). In addition to La Musgaña, the album featured Breton band Bleizi Ruz, Desi Wilkinson (Ireland), Laurent Jouin (Brittany, France) and Leilia, a Spanish group from Galicia.
During that time, La Musgaña kept touring abroad, sometimes accompanied by Javier Bergia. One of the best known international Celtic labels, Green Linnet Records, became interested in La Musgaña and offered the band a contract for several albums. It began by re-releasing Lubican. After Cuco Perez left, Xenophile (Green Linnet’s world music imprint) released La Musgaña’s new album. Titled Las Seis Tentaciones (The Six Temptations), the album was an intoxicating homage to traditional Castilian music, originally meant for weddings, street parties and religious ceremonies. It was performed with an interesting mixture of traditional and modern instruments. Las Seis Tentaciones was completely instrumental. This made it easier to market internationally. The album featured Basque accordionist Kepa Junkera as a guest.
For its 10th anniversary, the basic trio of La Musgaña celebrated a decade of work with some concerts in which many of the group’s friends participated as guests. There were former band members on stage, such as Rafael Martin, Cuco Perez and Luis Delgado. There were also great instrumentalists like Kepa Junkera, Javier Paxariño; singers Amancio Prada and Manuel Luna; several members of Radio Tarifa and Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham. A live album, La Musgaña en Concierto was later released.
Friday, August 13, 2004, was a sad day for La Musgaña. During a sound check in Cardedeu (Eastern Spain), Quique (Enrique) Almendros, flautist and piper, suffered a brain hemorrhage. His fellow band members and a doctor aided him. Despite the quick ride to the hospital, he entered into a deep coma.
The lineup changed throughout the years. In 2015, the band added Sebastián Rubio on drums and percussion, Antonio Toledo on classical guitar and Marta de la Aldea as lead singer.
In 2019, La Musgaña performed as a trio with Luis Antonio Pedraza. They released an album titled Raitán.
La Musgaña performed as duo during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the 2020-2021 period, featuring Carlos Beceiro and Jaime Muñoz.
Discography:
* El Diablo Cojuelo (Sonifolk, 1988)
* El Paso de la Estantigua (RTVE Música, 1989)
* Lubicán (Lady Alicia Records/Green Linnet, 1993)
* Las Seis Estaciones (Green Linnet/Xenophile, 1995)
* La Musgaña en Concierto (Resistencia, 1997)
* Temas profanos (Lubican Records, 2003)
* 20 (Mad River, 2007)
* Idas y venidas (Lubican Records, 2009)
* Entre dos (2013)
* Si supiera que cantando (2015)
* Raitán (Lubican Records, 2019)
Web Site: www.lamusgana.net
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
Nice overview of a great band.