"These days, electric guitar is not the sound of revolution," says Carmen Consoli on the phone from Rome. "The sound of revolution is the changing of conventions. Now everyone screams, but the real revolution is in the silence, in the action. We don't need the noise of electricity to give the impression of revolution."
To that end, the 33-year-old singer-guitarist has jumped deep into the acoustic musical traditions of her homeland. Consoli was born and raised in Catania, Sicily, framed by volcanic Mt. Etna and the Mediterranean Sea. With a jazz-blues guitarist for a dad, she was exposed to artists from Charles Mingus to Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin. Along the way she added affections for bossa nova, Brazilian forro, and the great folk singer Rosa Balistreri.
"It was so easy to fall in love with music," says Consoli, who performs at the Museum of Fine Arts Sunday. "I started playing guitar at a very early age, and I took to music as a duck to water. It was my first language."
Consoli offers that her music was "contaminated," in the best sense of the word, by her diet of overseas R&B, soul, blues, and rock. She cites those foreign favorites as a reason she gave up rock and dove into her own musical heritage on her latest album, "Eva Contro Eva" (Universal Music Latino). "They all played music rooted in their own origins. Janis Joplin was authentic, she sang from her soul. The same for Jimi Hendrix, his guitar cried and screamed.
"I started singing because I wanted to convey a diary of my own life, and they gave me the inspiration to do it. Then I found there was a treasure waiting for me back home, and the time had come to go and get it," she adds. "Like Alice in Wonderland discovered in 'White Rabbit,' that beautiful song by Jefferson Airplane, the treasure was in my own backyard."
The stacks of Marshall amplifiers are missing, but Consoli thinks that the rebel attitude ascribed to rock can be found in "roots music" like Sicily's traditional tarantella dance.
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Though it took time for some of Consoli's fans to warm to her new direction, "Eva Contro Eva," her first US release and ninth album overall, debuted at the top of the Italian charts and has enjoyed multiplatinum sales since. Across the Atlantic it's a different story: Consoli and her all-Italian lyrics have yet to dent the US market.
"Except for that generic Euro-pop sound, new Italian music can't get a toehold here," says Joseph Sciorra, Ph.D., a folklorist with the Calandra Institute at Queens College in New York. "[Americans] tend to go for non-European world music and think of Italy in terms of opera."
Sciorra thinks that Consoli might open the door for Avion Travel, Vinicio Capossela, Paolo Conte, and other "modern Italian singers with something to say." Taken with her insightful lyrics, husky intensity, and a delivery that ranges from a whisper to a bawdy belt, Sciorra says it's no surprise that Consoli made the leap to more traditional music on the new CD. "There's an incredible breadth to the music she's performed - acoustic folk songs, lush orchestral, hard-grinding metallic rock, melodic 1950s Italian pop like 'Volare.' I find that mix and knowledge exciting."
Recorded in Catania, "Eva Contro Eva" ("Eve Against Eve") includes guest shots from Angelique Kidjo and Bosnian composer Goran Bregovic and a nod to a musical idol Balistreri. Except for the tragic death of the original bassist, the lineup of Consoli's backing quintet has been stable since they began as blues-rockers Moon Dog Party more than a decade ago. For Sunday's concert at the MFA, Consoli's area debut, they'll perform with many of the acoustic Sicilian instruments played on the album, among them the tambouri, mandolin, shepherd's cane flute, and the bouzouki, which originated in Consoli's hometown.
While Consoli and her band have turned down the volume on the album, her lyrics never back down from a good fight. She takes on religious intolerance, persecution, sexism, and woman-centric issues, including the grandmother of them all, original sin.
"In the Garden of Eden, the snake is depicted as temptation," Consoli elaborates. "But it really stood for knowledge, thinking for oneself. Eve thought for herself and followed the snake. And now we blame her for all evil."
Does Consoli consider herself a religious person? "That depends on what you think religion is. I grew up in a Christian education, which taught me that suffering and fear are the cornerstones of religion. And the Scriptures have been rewritten many times just to coincide with the politics of the Church. I'd rather be a free citizen who uses her own mind. It's most important to listen to your heart and conscience, just live your life without hurting your neighbor."
Consoli hopes to "contaminate" other cultures with her roots, perhaps mixing hers with American music. But it's doubtful she'll give up singing her songs in Italian or water down her music for more crossover appeal.
"When I perform I explain my songs, and why I use Italian, how the melodies were developed," she says. "We like it when Americans come to Italy and sing in English and draw from their own culture. It's like a musical postcard from home. My greatest ambition is to bring a grain of my culture and roots to another audience. I loved Janis. But if I come to America, why should I sing the blues?"
