01-10-10 Bamako Mali: 1608 hrs. In a hotel room. I am between flights. The first of three flights is over with. I have done Timbuktu to here. I have Bamako to Paris and then onto Dublin, Ireland still to go. Getting out of Timbuktu was hopefully the most difficult. That’s always a dodgy transition. Schedules change radically, your name magically falls off flight lists, etc. I was lucky to get my ticket without too much hassle, although there was some hassle. That’s Africa. If I can get wheels up to Paris, I think I will be ok.
I just finished three days in a boat on the Niger and three days living in a tent in the Sahara desert. The boat ride was for the most part, really great. There were a lot of people on it, so you have to hope that there’s no one on there who is hard to get along with, including yourself. The others on the boat were fine. One young American rarely stopped talking and drove a few of us nuts but he seemed like a good enough guy, just a little too much of him. We chugged along the river by day and camped by the river at night. Great sunsets and sunrises. Just pulling the boat over in a place that looks good was a very liberating experience. There was no worry about being one someone’s property, you just pull over and you’re done.
The festival was good. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as last year though. The location of the festival had been changed. This time around, it was only ten minutes or less from Timbuktu, so I never got the feeling that we were really out in the desert. You could see the city lights from the site. Also, the festival felt the need to mix in western acts. Three killer African bands play and then at prime time, Deacon from Animal Collective goes onstage and sings three or four songs using a lot of effects. He starts the set by saying, “This is experimental music.” It wasn’t, and it wasn’t at all bad and I’m not trying to put the guy down but talk about a vibe killer. If he went on first, the context would have been totally different and the whole thing migt have gone down better. I was sitting amongst a lot of African people and they got up and literally started power walking out of the place when he was on, he cleared the place out in ten minutes. I was the one yelling “Kill whitey!” and “Free Huey! Black Power!” after every song. The main acts hit stage well past midnight when the crowd had thinned out considerably. Tinariwen goes one past one in the morning when it’s freezing. Really long set changes, very poorly considered. The festival needs a real stage manager to keep the energy up. The music for the most part was really good. A lot of great people at the festival. They came from all over. I met many and some of their stories were so great. Epic journeys. I met one young guy who is jamming with different musicians all over the world. His schedule sounded damn near impossible but he’s going for it. He’ll be out for a year. It’s people like the ones I meet at this festival that gives me hope for the future. They are so interested in the world, so ready to experience life to the fullest, extremely inspiring. I hope the festival returns to Essakane next year. If it’s in the same place it was this year, I don’t know if I will go back. I really enjoyed living in tents and using my sleeping bag for a week. I also didn’t mind the shower I took a couple of hours ago. I got a bit of sunburn on the right side of my face, I am sure it will look crazy for several days.
So, all the solo travel is over and the tour is hours away from starting. Road Manager Ward is en route to Dublin and soon, we’ll be rolling down the road. I have a lot of good material from all the travel and the happenings in the world so I think the shows will have the required density. I can’t wait to start.
I have to unpack, shake out as much sand as I can and get it all back together and make it back out to the airport soon. I am sure I will be finding sand in my gear for months to come. I was careful to ziplock bag all my camera stuff. It seemed a little over the top when I did it but now I see that was exactly the way to go.
I have spent the last couple of hours catching up on e-mail. Thanks for all the cool letters. I am looking forward to getting out to your town, hitting stage and hanging out afterwards. I live for this stuff as you know. Thanks for reading this. Henry