Singing the news: the story of Italy’s last ‘cantastorie’ – still performing in his 90s

Wandering musician … Franco Trincale performing one of his songs at his assisted living facility. Photograph: Agnese Morganti/The Guardian

When Franco Trincale was a barber boy, he used to sing Sicilian songs in breaks between customers, his boss strumming the guitar.

Back then, he could never have imagined that he would grow up to become Italy’s last great cantastorie, a now dying tradition of wandering musicians who entertain audiences by recounting the news in song-form. And he could not have predicted he would still be performing at 90 – in a nursing home.