Paula Boggs Band -- Sumatra

Sumatra, is the Paula Boggs Band's contribution to the resistance. Drawing upon a multitude of styles and instruments the band have created an inspirational call to celebrate the advances we’ve made as a society, and to fight hard to preserve them.

Musically the album draws upon Americana and African American gospel in both style and spirit. However, Boggs and company don't limit their horizons by being wedded to genre as they prove with the album's title, and opening, track, "Sumatra". The song and album open with a far older musical tradition, a Gregorian Chant.

Sung by The Evensong Choir of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral the piece lets listeners know they are in for an eclectic and unique experience. Even more importantly it kicks off the album's themes of resistance and rebellion. "Wafting autumn inspires me to/ Find places to dream,/ stream, scream revolution/. Babies are caged./ Are we enraged?/ How’d the hell we get here?"

Boggs' voice urgently singing her plea for us to wake up to what the hell's going on - it's no coincidence that Sumatra is not just a place in Indonesia but a particularly strong type of coffee - is supported by a type of swirling acoustic music associated with bands like Fairport Convention and Renaissance. However neither of those bands were as grounded in the earthy realities of our world as Boggs.

Boggs is proof that the best spiritual music is sung by someone completed rooted in the world. They see and hear everything around them - the good, the bad and the mundane - and still manage to find the path love, hope and resolve.

Boggs and her band - King Dawidalle - bass and vocals, Tor Dietrichson - percussion and vocals, Paul Matthew Moore - keyboards, accordion, and vocals, Darren Loucas - banjo, guitar, harmonica, lap steel, vocals and Jacob Evans on drums - work seamlessly together to create music that seems to have sprung organically from the earth.

With elements of rag-time, blue grass, folk and gospel mixed together they create the perfect frame work for Boggs' insightful and intelligent lyrics. For Boggs is a storyteller and a historian on top of everything else and the music has to support her lyrics without hyperbole or manipulation.

Like being rocked by the rhythms of a gently moving river, the music carries us through songs and lyrics celebrating her life with her wife, "Still Grateful" - "For the first time neighbors knew who we were./No more hiding or pretending/ - just a girl loving a girl, just a girl loving a girl."

However the music also carries over difficult places on a journey as exemplified by "Note to Quinn". A memorial to a friend lost the horror of HIV it lists for their benefit all the gains we've made. While the list is positive, the ache of loss is still there and the song has a definite bitter sweet quality you can't avoid. "Ravaged./By AIDS./A generation lost. A generation lost./You might not recognize America./Gay marriage./Fragile but still swinging."

Thankfully today's generation doesn't have to be as fascinated by the obituary page as previous ones did. Checking to see who you knew died. The song also relates how far we've come since the days of governments ignoring AIDS because it was "only them faggots dying."

However all those gains are, like she says, "fragile", and are being slowly eroded by governments around the world. Just ask any Trans person how secure they feel! The power of Boggs' lyrics and music are such they don't have to spell shit like this out - they can make it understood with just one word and the proper context.

In spite of all the horrible stuff being perpetrated around us by governments and others Sumatra still ends on a positive note. While the opening song might have wondered about what went wrong the closing "Ain't Going to let Nobody Turn Me Round" is an affirmation of hope and positivity.

This African American spiritual epitomized the way in which gospel was utilized during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. It preached a message of hope and love in the face of anger and hostility. As all the phobias (homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia,) and isms (racism, anti-semitism and sectarianism) make comebacks, this song is a powerful and potent antidote to all of that ugliness.

Paula Boggs and her band are an organic continuation of the music of people like Odetta and Mavis Staples. Two women who mixed spirituals, folk, and jazz to sing songs of social justice and hope. Sumatra is a great album that can't help but remind you of what we're fighting to preserve and also give you the strength to continue the battle. We need more people to be making this kind of music.

Sumatra will be released on Friday, March 27th

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