No-one needs to be living in Trump’s USA to be aware that governments never feel that it’s in their interest to prioritise great art and music over attention-grabbing and ill-conceived populist policies. Mali’s Songhoy Blues, unfortunately, have now found themselves at the receiving end of such nonsense.
The four-piece band have been around for more than ten years, with four very well received albums to their name, but have still managed to find themselves falling foul of UK immigration policy. In fact, only two of the band (vocalist and guitar player Garba Touré and bassist Oumar Touré) were able to secure work visas for their present tour. Hence, drums, kora, additional percussion and extra guitar are being provided by musicians who had only had three days to learn the band’s present set before hitting the highways and byways of England. Not that this seems to matter, luckily. Songhoy Blues were on fire from the moment that they threaded their way through the crowd to get on stage at Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds to their final bows at the end of their head-spinning and hip-swinging performance.
Launching into “Alhakou” from 2017’s Résistance album, the black-clad crew had a diverse, but largely middle-aged crowd swaying and shuffling to the hypnotic groove from the off. Next up, “Sobey” had Garba Touré gazing to the heavens, with a big grin under his dark glasses and wide-brimmed hat and waving his six-string in the air like a mighty wand. This had the full house enthusiastically clapping to the beat and pounding their feet to the good groove of this song of unity and togetherness.
Soon, support act N’Famady Kouyaté joined the headliners with his balafon (a West African xylophone-type instrument made from wood and dried gourds) for a lively take on “Toukambela” from this year’s Héritage album. Having already fully ingratiated himself with the room before Songhoy Blues took their turn on stage, this only encouraged the crowd to jump around even more to the head-spinning, joyful groove.
New tune, “Boro Terrey” initially brought about some Jimi Hendrix-like psychedelic blues guitar pyrotechnics from Garba Touré before things calmed down significantly. “Issa”, a song about taking care of rivers because they are literally a foundation of all life, similarly had plenty of guitar shredding within the calmer grooves on offer, while “Barre” was all about the bass and had many nodding along. This, however, only provided a brief respite before the band fired up an extended take on the afro-punk, soul-freeing “Badala” which again had all those present going bonkers.
Songhoy Blues’ set finished up with the magnificent, foot-stomping “Soubour” and finally the fiery “Al Hassidi Terei” from the band’s excellent debut album, Music in Exile. Again, the infectious groove and percussion-led madness had the audience howling for more. But it was not to be, and the band put down their instruments with big smiles all round, stepping down from the low stage, snaking their way back through the crowd and leaving everyone very happy with the evening’s entertainment.
