Parush Parushev

Street singer

Parush Parushev was the most famous of the street singers who could be found at every major fair and market in Bulgaria. I remember such a singer, Marin Ivanov Nikolov, perched under an umbrella in the main market place (Zhenski pazar) in Sofia in the early 1970s. He would sit at his harmonium and sing dramatic or tragic ballads that had his audience hanging on every word. At the most suspenseful or captivating moment, he would interrupt his performance to sell his self-published song sheets, such as the one below.

The selection included in the CD "Song of the Crooked Dance" describes a devastating earthquake which occured in 1928. The photos portray the nature of the damage, and the article of 1994 in the newspaper"168 Chasa" give a chilling account of the effect of the disaster on the city of Plovdiv.

Listen to a short clip of his song Zemetresenie v Bulgaria from the CD Re-issue.