During the darkest days of the Cold War in the early 1970s, a group of like-minded students would often get together to forget about their academic responsibilities by listening to, talking about and playing music. Among them was a young medical student from Šiauliai by the name of Virgis Stakėnas, whose aspirations to become a serious musician took such a hold on him that he abandoned medicine altogether and carved himself a long and successful career as Lithuania’s foremost professional country music star. Born into a prominent medical family on August 10, 1953, the award-winning singer-songwriter, performer, producer, music journalist and founder of no less than five Lithuanian music festivals blends the familiar sounds of country with elements of traditional Lithuanian folk music into a genre that’s both unique and accessible at the same time and that to date has produced over 300 songs and a grand total of 19 albums. Singing almost exclusively in Lithuanian in a distinctively deep and gravelly voice, Stakėnas is extremely active on Facebook and many of his songs can also be found on Spotify.