About four weeks ago il Troubadore was asked to play the Ethnic Fest at Butler University, an event sponsored by R.E.A.C.H. (Reaffirming Ethnic Awareness and Community Harmony). Obviously we accepted.

I arrived a bit later than I intended (the Ethnic Fest ran from 4:30 to 6:30 PM, Thursday 2008 September 4) as I found out my grandmother passed away earlier yesterday morning. It was a small affair being held in the Atherton Union (due to the rain) which was where we'd played the Butler Dance Marathon a few years back.

The act that was on when I got there, a Celtic flute/guitar duo, ended up running over a bit which was fine given my tardiness. Butler students filled the relatively small space eathing ethnic foods from one of three or four vendors at tables. There wasn't really much of a "dance floor" as the tables filled much of the hall. The line for the henna was filled with nearly as many students as there were otherwise in the hall.

Our setlist, since we only had half an hour to play, was as follows:

Milise Mou (Greek laika) La Bamba (Mexican) Graovsko horo (Bulgarian folk dance) Hela'r Sgyfarng (Welsh folk tune) Funiculì, Funiculà (Italian/Neopolitan song) Ani Mori Nuse (Albanian folk song) Tunak Tunak (Punjabi Bhangra - Daler Mehndi cover) Ojos Así (Columbian - Shakira cover)

I wanted all the tunes to be very upbeat an danceable just in case the students were so inclined to dance as some (though not as many as I would have liked to see) were.

Milise Mou

This is quite possibly one of our strongest tunes overall hands down. A wonderful Greek Polka ("laika" is just a Greek term for "song" or "folk song"). Bellydancers seem to love it despite its not being in any Middle Eastern Rhythm, and it seems to work well for their Zils. And for some reason (maybe relate to the tendancy of Bellydancers to Zil) people want to clap to it. Also, I get to sing the vocal harmonies during the chorus! This tune is often a starter for us now.

La Bamba

What can I say? Probably the most recognizable tune we played yesterday, encore notwithstanding (more about that later). The kids were dancing and singing along to it just fine.

Graovsko horo

Bellydancers HATE it when we play this for them. It has nothing to do with the tune itself--it is really catchy and very cool and isn't in a inordinately complicated rhythm that dancers aren't familiar with like so much of Eastern European music is. Their hatred (it's more of a love/hate thing for them) stems from the speed with which we take it. I must have been a Bulgarian accordian player in a past life because, since I have the melody line and start the tune, I take it faster than any human should be allowed to by law take it. It went over very well.

Hela'r Sgyfarng

The joy in playing this, which isn't much of a jig the way we play it though it IS often played as a jig, was having a handful of the students doing some Irish step-dancing to it (one student approached Robert afterwards to ask what the name of the song was).

Funiculì, Funiculà

Probably the second most recognizeable tune we played. ANyone who goes to an Italian Festival expects someone to play this. Anyone who's watched Warner Brothers cartoons recognize this. Robert gave the short spiel about how this tune was the subject of one of the first copyright lawsuits in music history as Richard Strauss, thinking it a folk tune, incorporated it "Aus Italien" symphony. Strauss lost the suit and paid royalties to Luigi Denza evertime that symphony was performed in public.

Ani Mori Nuse

This is a tune that I sing alone. One of my favorites and has turned into one of our most popular bellydance tunes. In most versions the rhythm is actually a moderate Ayub. When we started doing it I decided I wanted something in a Malfuf to give it more drive. One of the food vendors told me afterwards that, "I've never heard an Armenian song before!" I smiled tight-lipped to hold back a quip about how ("an really, you still haven't") corrected him and said, "Actually that was Albanian--though we do play a few Armenian tunes too."

Tunak Tunak Tun

This is a song I knew we had to do. After seeing amateur music video versions of it, videos at frat parties and American wedding videos of people (and even World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2 vids!!) doing the Daler Menhdi dance, it was just a given that we had to cover this. We were rewarded by several pockets of kids' rising excitement as Robert did his spiel about the tune and then "taught" them the Chorus followed by at least one group at a table doing the Daler Mehndi dance while we performed it.

Ojos Así

"I'm probably the only male that's covers Shakira in Indiana" is usually how we announce Ojos Así. This tune is good for us as it is one that bellydancers recognize that isn't a classical danc tune AND Shakira is a retty recognizeable musical figure. The other benefit is that we have a tune that is both in Spanish and Arabic. This one was easily a hit.

As we announced ourselves one last time and began to exit the stage, one of the organizers shouted we had five minutes--all this while students were yelling "Encore, Encore." I don't know if we just really blitzed through the set, or I misjudged how little banter we would have onstage, but I announced "Ok, now we're going to sing in British for you." The joke was sorta lost on them, but as we began "Another One Bites the Dust" to end the set, it didn't really matter. And the applause, cheering, and screaming from the 60 or so students and vendors that were left after we finished made it worthwhile.

As things were winding down, the Indian-Americans from the henna table approached Paul and me as we were stuffing our faces. The younger lady wanted to tell how much she enjoyed the Daler Mehndi song. SHe told us that she doesn't understand all the lyrics since it's not a language she speaks but she was singing along with us. The older gentleman and lady nodded in agreement. This is why we do what we do, it is always rewarding to have people from non-caucasian ethnic backgrounds really enjoying our performances.

They could be considered "under-served" groups in this country since you don't really hear, say, Bollywood tunes in restaurants (Indian Restaurants notwithstanding), or stores, or shopping center, or on the radio, or live for that matter. Just imagine living in a country you consider your home but never only being able to hear music you're unfamiliar with, or music you don't really like all the time in public spaces.

il Troubadore has never really been interested in adding to an already saturated market of Euro-American pop (obviously we do play alot of covers for various reasons--mostly so that we can surreptitiously insert an "ethnic" tune into a setlist for an unsuspecting audience). It sometimes help people to realize that they can actually enjoy something that's a little different.