Bouzouki Blues

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It seems hard to imagine, but, despite all the great food, golden beaches and warm sunshine, even Greeks get the blues. And they have the music to match the mood: rembetika.

A mix of Western and Eastern influences, rembetika first emerged from the bars and cafés of 1920s Piraeus, Athens' ancient port and onetime home to refugees from Turkey and other parts of Asia Minor. The style — with its gravel-voiced singers and the metallic twang of the bouzouki, a kind of Greek lute — became the sound of the urban underclass, with sharp, poignant...

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