Massimo Bubola
Quel lungo treno

These were the songs my grandfather loved, songs that go back to a time when young people, like many of you, were fighting in impossible conditions in a war that was hardly understood and whose reasons no one fully grasped.

It's with words like these that Massimo Bubola comments on his latest album "Quel lungo treno", an album entirely dedicated to the First World War. Even in this album, the influences from Irish folk are quite evident, especially at the beginning ("Jack O'Leary", an Irish story that perfectly fits the theme of this album, and "Era una notte che pioveva" which turns from a traditional alpine song into something very close to the Waterboys).
There are also some new pieces on this album, for example, "Se questo amore è un treno", already presented in recent concerts, which stays within the album's atmosphere while remaining true to Irish country.
"Nostra Signora Fortuna" is a country-blues ballad, a prayer for all those "who cried every day and drank every night, for all those who fall around and still get lost". "Puoi uccidermi" is also a ballad that tells of the many ways to die during a war. Then there are a series of traditional songs like "Il disertore" (but not the one by Vian also sung by Fossati, this is an Italian song dating back to the First World War), "Noi veniam dalle pianure" turned into a piano ballad, "Monte Canino" (the true gem of the album, slow-folk with an accordion), something in the Venetian dialect (let's not forget that Massimo Bubola is from Verona), "Ponte de Priula", always faithful to the album's atmospheres, "Bum bum", the most rock-cut piece, and it ends with another traditional Venetian, "Adio Ronco", a sad farewell from a soldier leaving for Russia.

Ultimately, a heartfelt tribute from Massimo Bubola to those thousands of young victims of a war fought during hard and difficult years, leaving young Italians and Austrians on the highest peaks of the Alps to fight in impossible weather conditions. Francesco De Gregori had already tried a few years ago with "Stelutis Alpinis", but Bubola succeeded with much better results.