Bring on the douns

Josy and I experimented on Tuesday, September 13, and then again on Thursday, September 22, to see how my songs sound when she plays douns and I sing.   We feel encouraged ~~ I feel ecstatic, actually ~~ about how good they sounded.   It's the foundation for the way I hear my songs in my head.

On Tuesday we found some grooves with Coconut Oil and Burnt Sugar Blues.   I figured if we couldn't find good riffs for those two songs, we better just give up and go home.   But they sound cool!   Yay!

On Thursday we refreshed Tuesday's songs, then added Wayfaring Stranger and Fever and enjoyed another round of good luck.   The two links here go to youtubes of the nearest inspirations for our take on these cover songs.   I rewrote about half the words in each so I'll update this post with links to my versions.

Bob Miller of Foliba offered super suggestions and recorded the basic rhythms with his phone so we would remember them for next practice.   In this picture, Bob wears a white shirt as he plays the douns.

Foliba plays Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso in 2012

Josy started drum lessons with Fonziba Koster about seven years ago, and has developed into the go-to doun player in her intermediate drumming group, keeping a steady beat for their traditional West African polyrhythms, from simple to complex.

I feel overjoyed and deeply honored to hear Josy holding the basic rhythm structures for Burnt Sugar Blues' songs.

Foliba wows the crowd

Energetic and tight as a drum (ha), Foliba wowed the crowd last night with the rhythm Marakadon, also called Maraka:



From left to right, the drummers are Dave Winningham, Dan Craig, Bob Miller, and JoLynn Gates.   These rhythms are infectious and inspiring ~~ I love soaking them into my bones to get the knick and knack of what to do during band sessions when I'm banging on the djembe.

Drum circle is a week from Saturday!

The video was captured by Burt Chojnowski (YouTube handle = coolburt) at Wednesday's Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso in Fairfield, Iowa.

Foliba headlines Open Mic

Back during a 10-month dry spell on this blog, Foliba headlined Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso on October 10, 2012, playing traditional West African rhythms.  Dave Winningham handed me his camera to record some rhythms, so it's my fault the video is kinda shaky and beheads the players.

In the first video below, Open Mic host Keith DeBoer introduces the group and they begin with "a celebratory rhythm", Sinte.   From left to right the players are Dan Craig, David Winningham, JoLynn Gates, and Bob Miller.



Later in the set, they electrify the room with Jansa ~~ tremendous, vibrant energy swells to the ceiling and bulges the walls!   From left to right the players are Dan Craig, David Winningham, Bob Miller, and JoLynn Gates.  



These players anchor most of the drum circles in Fairfield.

Both videos were uploaded to YouTube by David Winningham.

Lo-Cal taste of Sugar Blues

the West African drumming group Foliba
played at the February 22 Open Mic

Coolio musicians meet friendly audiences at Open Mic in Fairfield.   I enjoyed three of these after they started up again in January at Cafe Paradiso.   That alchemy combined with Tuesday's practice when we were developing a new Celtic-bardic-ballad-sounding song and somebody said it might sound nice with just guitar and voice.   The cauldron brewed until Wednesday evening when a new idea wafted up, so I emailed Mike about Open Mic and the notion that he and I could duo as a low-tech taste of our band.

Open Mic that night was beautiful and touching with storytelling, poetry, and singer/songwriter sounds.   Mike liked it and we're getting songs ready for some time soon.

Update, March 12, 2013: We did perform that Celtic-bardic-ballad-sounding song at Open Mic on April 4, 2012.   We call it Would You Catch Me.