Janam

Sara really wanted to see these guys, and for 5$ at the MCC I was in. Was a fun show, a mix of songs from Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Turkey and then a couple of bluegrass tunes (Cuckoo Bird, Wayfaring Stranger, Deeper Well from the 1995 Emmylou Harris album, and an original) so every once in a while you could understand the lyrics :) The singer had a great voice; drummer had a Balkan drum -- a double sided marching-band-style drum with a different drum stick for each side; string player used a fiddle, a mandolin-like instrument (may have been an actual mandolin), and a guitar-like instrument with the body being much more spherical; and the clarinet player was groovy -- it looked to me like he was break dancing while he played. There are 5 people in the band pic, but the 5th guy (accordion) didn't come down from SF for the gig.