Believe it. The National Steel Blues Tour is back. Back to Africa. Bigger, and badder than ever. In January, 2020 I'll launch N'ganga Blues, almost certainly the Biggest little tour to take southern Africa. No place too large, too small, too grand, or too humble. From time to time I'll have some of South Africa's top blues, rock and folk royalty joining me for some pop-up events.N'ganga. The healer. This thing we call Blues. I've rolled the bones all over the map. Sixty throws. Sixty mostly solo shows: they shadow South Africa. When you roll the bones you could come up snake eyes. Or you could score big. That's what the Old Man used to say.Dust in my blood, I can't escape. Solo, I'm pushing back out into the desert. The Great Karoo is calling: and then the rest of it. This map shows places with names I can't pronounce. Yeah, yeah, if I can put my finger on it- I'm going there. It's in the sidebar. When we stop for drinks, I'll get it sorted.When I was young I met them in the American rural south, at the festivals, in the juke joints. Men like Son House, Sam Chatmon, Robert Pete Williams. As an older man, it should of been no surprise to meet them again- or rather, others like them- here in Africa. A full circle. An unbroken chain. Tellers and healers. And now I'm back, surfing the summer heat, buying cheap red and diesel. Life leaking out around the edges. Death wandering aimlessly. At night: it's cool neon and electric wire, both humming in B flat. To Have and Have Not. To breathe in and out.It's healing music, these Blues. But the Blues is also this journey: close to the wire. The hot wire. A journey through life. This place where all things are possible. Or should be. Where stories hang like dust in the air: drawn to the heart by the rattle of the Bones. N'ganga.
