Search - Palm Wine Boys :: Up & Down

Record Label's Intro

Paul J. Tumolo | 12/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"West African palm wine music and American folk and blues all come together to make up the mellow rhythmic sound of the Palm Wine Boys. Palm wine music is West African roots music. Like folk and blues, the roots music of North America, it is the music of the township and village; "an expression of the day-to-day life of ordinary people, the music of their hearts. It tells of their joys, their sorrows, their pleasures and their displeasures" said the late S.E. Rogie, one of the great innovators of the genre. The Palm Wine Boys fuse the lyrical sensibilities of folk and blues with the guitar lines and rhythms of palm wine music to create a new form. They play innovative world roots music.



"Up & Down" will remind many of early highlife or acoustic calypso with its lilting melodies, irresistible bouncy rhythms, and playful lyrics. On the playful side, there's the opening lines of the title track: "Oh my lover she's like a hollow tree, you find comfort in the shade, even through its full of bees." Being folk music, it has a serious side also. For example, "Its Important", which Richard Linley, the band's primary writer, sang at his mother's funeral: "for all those who have come before us, they are the stepping stones on which we stand, they are the one who cleared the path through the forest, and its important to remember them."

The new CD features four part harmonies, the dual intertwining guitars of palm wine music, strong bass lines, occasional flute, and various African hand percussion throughout."