(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Near the end of 2014, I went on a “musical pilgrimage” to southern England. Based mostly in Cambridge and London, highlights included Paul Carrack in Southend-on-Sea, Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall, the London production of “The Commitments”, Los Pacaminos (featuring Paul Young) in a Putney pub, and a bunch of Beatles sights (including crossing Abbey Road, in the above photo).

It’s been a while since I’ve done a trip like that, although I still attend a lot of concerts. So, where would I go now?

The first place that comes to mind is South Africa. Regular readers of this blog will know that I saw (and met!) the late Johnny Clegg many times. Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album remains one of my all-time favourites. “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto” is a great compilation of music from South Africa. I really enjoyed seeing Ladysmith Black Mambazo when they came to Kingston. And Ladysmith Black Mambazo recently collaborated with South African Jeremy Loops on a fun single called “This Town”. It would be great to see this live, in the country where it was made.

I enjoyed seeing a small tango orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But since then, I have discovered the music of Bajofondo. The band members are from both Argentina and Uruguay. They use local music, such as tango, as a starting point…but take it in some very interesting modern directions. Since poor weather stopped me from getting to Uruguay, wouldn’t it be cool to see something like this in Montevideo?

But it is not necessary to go halfway across the world. There are some American artists who could form the basis for a fun musical trip. I have great respect for Jon Batiste from New Orleans, Louisiana: I was singing the praises of his “We Are” album even before it received a bunch of Grammy nominations. A trip to New Orleans could also include Trombone Shorty, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (who we recently saw in Kingston)…the list goes on.

I’ve already seen the Weeklings perform live…in Monmouth, New Jersey, of all places. However, they were so compelling that I’d love to see them again. Their cover versions (especially of Beatles songs) are amazing, but their original compositions are great too. And I recently discovered that they sometimes play live at Daryl’s House, in Pawling, New York. It’s a cozy venue, and is operated by none other than Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates fame). Wouldn’t that be a fun part of a trip to New York City?

I shared some Weeklings videos in a music-related post from a couple of years ago…if you like the above two, you’ll probably find these ones even better.

And what about all those Canadian music trips I could do? Pagliaro in Montreal…trips like that could keep me occupied for years!