Greenfields

The Greenfields are a popular Maltese folk group rated as one of the foremost in folk revival. Founded around 1970 by Joe Tanti, Carmen Tanti and Charles Bajada from Ħamrun, they appeared in many television and radio programmes. They have a repertoire of original songs, including a number written by George Stevens and Charles Coleiro or Joe Tanti himself. Following the untimely demise of Charles Bajada, the group continued as a duo.

In 1974 they released a vinyl long play album entitled Sing Along with The Greenfields that included Il-Karozzin, Il-Vapur tal-Art and Tgħidx Le Katarina. A popular quatrain from this song, penned by Coleiro, runs as:

Le Katrin tgħidx le did-darba Ħadd Illum mhu se jindaħal Hawn bi ħġarha n-nies tiltaqa' f'ġieħ il-festa ta' dan ir-raħal.

In a subsequent album, released by Electro in 1975 and simply entitled Greenfields, they presented another fourteen tracks, a number of which were British folk cover versions including The Leaving of Liverpool and The Piper of Dundee and original Maltese that depicted rural activities related to farming, Fuq il-Qiegħa (On the Treshing Floor) written by acclaimed author Ġorġ Zammit, an original folk ballad, written by band member Joe Tanti on a fishing tragedy, Il-Għarqa tal-Pulikajr (Pulikajr's Drowning) and Il-Fanal (The Lantern), by Professor Oliver Friggieri. On this album they were assisted by Franky Portelli on bass.