A couple of days ago, my friend Ivan walks through the door while I’m working on the fron’troom and Etran Finatawa is on the stereo because I have the player set to the reggae genre because there’s a lot on my player in the reggae genre and I’m filthy so I don’t want to touch the player too much, and also reggae makes uplifting work music and besides for whatever reason a lot of stuff other than reggae is listed under reggae like Etran Finatawa.
Ivan’s first words are “that sounds like Junior Kimbrough.”
So he leaves Junior Kimbrough’s CD, You Better Run and I rip it. And yeah the eight player band from Niger does sound like Junior Kimbrough from Mississippi even though Junior Kimbrough died in 1998 and Etran Finatawa formed in the past year or so.
That’s not a revelation or anything. If Junior Kimbrough studied North African music in his little Mississippi juke joint, it wouldn’t be that surprising. Actually there’s some indication that he did. By the same token if Etran Finatawa studied African American music from the Deep South, it also shouldn’t come as a shock. And NPR’s Sarah Bardeen seems to imply that they did.
Hey I look for these things, I don’t know why. I notice if potatoes are found in a dish at a Beijing Restaurant.
Or if a dance move from Grease shows up in a Bollywood flick.
Well anyway that’s all I got. Got to run down to the Kwik-E-Mart to get a Buzz Cola.
Songs
Junior Kimbrough – Done Got Old
Etran Finatawa – Surbajo
p.s. Look for a guest post from neo-Austinite yet Astro’s fan, Mari Pool, in this spot next week and Chicago trumpeteer, Chris Erin, the week after.
Junior Kimbrough at his juke joint.
Etran Finatawa against a wall.
You don’t have to defend listening to the reggae genre. It is a very valid choice.
We’ve talked about bollywood here before. And i’m just a sucker for that song and dance frosting. I”m sure you’ve seen The Guru where they do a great job of showing the connection between Bollywood and Grease. If you haven’t i highly recommend it. It makes you want to dance the way few movies do.
And nice finatawa clip.
i love my jimmy cliff,
i predict roots is going to make a comeback.
anf THE GURU sounds like a must see
Steel Pulse at the Cullen Auditorium was easily one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. And I loves me some Peter Tosh. Not to mention the joys of dub. Oh, I guess I just did.
great videos
and, for my fourth of july, i went to see Sicko with the kates.
I bought Tecate and watched Mexicans shoot off fireworks in the alleys with Ivan. Nice show actually. Then I watched Devil’s Backbone.
Oh also Bluebird, I downloaded some stuff off your electronic music that sucks but I like it anyway list.
I love Junior Kimbrough. Check out “Sad Days, Lonely Nights”. I tried to get him for the ’96 KTRU Outdoor Show, but his health didn’t permit travel at that point.
yup augustus pablo puts me in a trance. i really need to get schooled in reggae. i always linger around the reggae show on the radio.
well hell I’ll write about a few that have been on my mind and in my ears lately…but in a few weeks because I’ve got some guest speakers while we’re on the road.
I just ordered an Etran Finawata CD. Thanks for the intro, Kilian.
I’ve always dug Kimbrough, and damn, I might add that the Kinatawa track is also pretty fucking cool too. I love the electric bass, the guitar solo, and the vocals all combined. Tasty.
I think you’ll dig the Finatawa – lots of tasty thumb picking guitar stuff and call/response singing.