Gig Weekend

It's arrived. Another gig with Baaba Seth - my worldbeat band on the East Coast, for anyone who doesn't know. Every year I fly back once or twice for a show. It's always a blast. I love playing solo acoustic, but there's nothing like the rush of playing with these awesome musicians and good friends.

Tonight, I'm busy. Writing my song for the week, then packing. I am always afraid I'm going to forget some vital piece of gear when I head out for these gigs. Or that my guitar will have to be checked and get broken. So far, though, I've been lucky.

We're playing Saturday at the Devil's Backbone Music Festival in Nelson County. I'll be getting into Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday afternoon, and flying home Monday morning.

We formed in 1991. I was looking for a way to express my original songs in a context that draws heavily from African and Reggae music. I guess we were a bit ahead of our time - these days, artists like Vampire Weekend, Brett Dennen, and others are starting to incorporate African sounds. Heck, these days, Femi Kuti is practically mainstream. And even though we stopped doing the band full-time in 2000, we've been really lucky. Everyone in the band are friends, and we all love the music enough that now, eleven years after we "broke up," we still get together and play several times a year. Much to our joy, we still have a very strong fan base in Virginia, so we can not only have a packed, energetic show, we can also make enough money to cover our travel expenses and still get a bit of money in our pockets. 

I'm looking forward to this particular show, mostly because since I've been busking every weekend, my chops and my voice are both in better shape than they have been over the past decade.

Well, I'd better get writing and packing! I'll be back next week for the usual project stuff!