November 21, 2008
To coincide with the its first major tour of Latvia in more than a decade, the Latvian-American group Čikāgas piecīši, led by founder Alberts Legzdiņš, has released a career-spanning “best of” collection called Zelts. The compact disc features 27 tracks, covering the band’s entire career, spanning a nearly five-decade career. The group’s other CD retrospective, Agrīnie gadi, released in 1996, focused mainly on early work.
The full track listing of the Zelts collection is:
- Made in Latvia
- Mēs puisēni jauni būdami
- Kurzemnieki Viskonsīnā
- Sapnis par Latgali
- Ciema meita
- Tautas skaitīšana
- Sekss ir labs
- Pēc 20 gadiem
- Vecpiebalga
- Turaidas Roze
- No Lielupes tilta
- Sanfrancisko – Rīga
- Ziedojiet, ziedojiet!
- Piektdienas vakars
- Šūpuļdziesma
- Man garšo alus
- Līgo dziesma
- Supermārketā
- Kurpniekzeļļi
- Sprīdītis Rīgā
- Mister, Kurzemniek!
- Ziemeļamerikas polka
- Pazudušais dēls
- Lai visa pasaule to redz
- 1989. gads
- Par mani, draudziņ, nebēdā
- Vai debesīs būs Latvija?
The CD was released by the Latvian label Balss. The group’s tour of Latvia began Nov. 15 in Liepāja and ends Nov. 23 in Cēsis, and included a concert at the Arēna Rīga on Independence Day, Nov. 18.
For more on Čikāgas piecīši, visit the group’s Web site, www.cikagaspiecisi.com, its MySpace page or Legzdiņš’ site on the social network draugiem.lv.
Egils Kaljo is an American-born Latvian from the New York area who lives in Rīga, Latvia. When not working in the information technology field, he sings in the Latvian Academy of Culture mixed choir Sõla, does occasional translation work, and has been known to sing and play guitar at the Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs in Old Rīga. Kaljo began listening to Latvian music as soon as he was able to put a record on a record player, and still has old Bellacord 78 rpm records lying around somewhere.
