Carlos Nunez

Carlos Nuñez is the poster boy of Galician music, but it's a title he has earned by both talent and hard work. With chops like Hendrix on the local bagpipes (called gaita), but a penchant for researching the tradition and its origins, he has become one of Spain's most recognizable musicians and a major force behind the reconstruction of the Galician musical tradition. Northern Spain has always been as much a part of the Celtic world as a Romance country, with strong ties to both Ireland and Scotland, and it was those Nuñez has explored, as well as other strands which have taken his music through flamenco and even into North Africa and the Middle East. Under the dictatorial Franco regime, regional music in Spain was suppressed, with flamenco — actually an import — becoming the national sound. As a student of Baroque music at the Madrid Conservatory, Nuñez helped investigate and revitalize a great deal of what had been lost. But even before that, he'd become something of a musical force, having begun learning the pipes at age eight and performing soon after, actually having his first international date when he was 13 at the Lorient Celtic Festival in France, where he met Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains and suggested the band make an album of Galician music.