Refugee All Stars at SXSW

Treasure Beach Forum: TB Runnin's: Refugee All Stars at SXSW
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eric on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 10:52 am: Edit Post

I've been meaning to post this for over a week now...

I had the great fortune to attend the South By Southwest (sxsw) Film/Music/Interactive festival in Austin, Texas last week and it was truly awesome. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is into music (over 1400 bands from all over the world played!) or film (I saw three movies where the director/participants answered questions after the screening). And for a computer geek like myself, the Interactive (a cryptic name for web-related) seminars were a great experience...I sat in on an interview with Craig of craigslist done by the guy who started Wikipedia.

But the highlight for me was seeing the movie and then meeting the performers of the Refugee All Stars, a group of musicians from Sierra Leone who met in a refugee camp in Guinea and formed the band to help console their fellow campmates.

Their music has a lot of Reggae-influence, but it's also powered by the hardships the performers faced (The first cut is called "Living like a refugee [is not easy]") and the positive vibes they are spreading to their countrymen through their other songs.

Do yourself a favor and go to the web site (http://refugeeallstars.org), listen to the free music they have there, read up on them, and purchase the double CD. All proceeds go to the band.

As I danced to their music at a small venue they played, I kept thinking "Man, wouldn't this be a great and to have at the Calabash Literary Festival!"

I'd love to hear your comments on the film/music/band/etc.

-Eric