Jonathan Spinks gave us a surprise last night at his concert at Treehugger Dan's. Judith Harvey accompanied him on several of the songs. We all know John is a gifted guitarist, pianist and singer, but he had a special surprise for us last night - he played a kora as well. Since I had no idea what a kora was, I looked it up on Wikipedia:

"A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge like a lute or guitar. It does not fit well into any one category of western instruments and would have to be described as a double bridge harp lute. The sound of a kora resembles that of a harp, though when played in the traditional style, it bears a closer resemblance to flamenco and delta blues guitar techniques. The player uses only the thumb and index finger of both hands to pluck the strings in polyrhythmic patterns (using the remaining fingers to secure the instrument by holding the hand posts on either side of the strings). The instrument is played in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and The Gambia. Traditional koras feature 21 strings, eleven played by the left hand and ten by the right. By moving leather tuning rings up and down the neck, a kora player can retune the instrument into one of four seven-note scales."

I especially enjoyed the songs on the kora, and I really liked Randy Newman's "I Think Its Gonna Rain Today," and Ray LaMontagne's "Beg Steal or Borrow." Randy Newman is of course also responsible for "Short People Got No Reason to Live," a song I had to learn in elementary school music class.

Set List:

On piano:
In the Morning
Lift Me Up
In My Place
May Day
I Think Its Gonna Rain Today
Wheels
Wages Day
Man in the Moon
Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Fade Away

On guitar
Beg Steal or Borrow
Sink or Swim
Magdelena
Ain't Nobody

On kora:
Jaribi
Allah la ke
Bani le
Kaira
Kelefa ba/Jimbasengo