Afro Blue

It’s EarthDance weekend at Black Oak Ranch down in Laytonville. The annual “celebration for world peace and unity” gets underway Friday with Neko Case and Kinky among that day’s headliners. Saturday’s show includes Digable Planets and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk and many, many others, plus the Prayer for Peace ritual. This year they’re also offering Sunday-only tickets and it’s a good day with swamp-funksters JJ Grey and Mofro (who play next Thursday at Humboldt Brews), reggae star Anthony B, young Afro-hip hopper K’Naan and Michael Franti and Spearhead all on the main stage. Also playing Sunday, Panjea, an awesome Afro-fusion band led by former local Chris “Toosa” Berry on mbira, and, of late, with ex-String Cheese fiddler Michael Kang.

Did you notice the date on this week’s paper? That’s right, it’s Sept. 11, aka 9/11, another one of those dark days that will live in infamy. The Accident Gallery and the poetry collective A Reason to Listen (Therese Keslin, Vanessa Pike, Nicola Hunt and Brad Wilson) are marking the date with a politically-themed poet’s open mike with prizes. Meanwhile in the Kate Buchanan Room, songwriter Jesse Goplen plays for a 9/11 Truth HSU event that also includes a new 9/11 documentary Fabled Enemies. Jesse will debut songs from his upcoming EP, Cowboy,some of them love songs, some with a political 9/11 theme like his last album, September Eleven Blues.

Jesse brought a burn of the new disc by my house last week and showed me his new guitar, a Gibson Custom Shop Super Jumbo Elite Custom, bought with part of a $25,000 sweepstakes prize he won after spending weeks entering every contest he could find online. He played me a tune off the album, a beautiful bluesy thing in a minor key called “Highway 101,” written for Kyana, the love of his life. After he left, I spun the disc, and heard songs like “Didn’t You Know?” where he asks us to listen to Willie Nelson’s take on the 9/11 story. It made me wonder, why dwell on darkness when there’s a bright future ahead, one that could be made even brighter by that big beautiful guitar.

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