Concert came with a lesson

I spent a good part of the first set trying to figure out what the big guy in the back was playing.

At first I thought maybe it was a bongo drum. Then I thought he might not be playing anything. Perhaps he was just keeping time until it was his turn to shine.

We went to a free concert of the Lost Bayou Ramblers over the weekend. The Grammy winning group bills themselves as a “perversely progressive band rooted in Cajun traditions.” Their music takes traditional music and adds modern sounds and rhythms.

They had an interesting assortment of instruments. There was a fiddle, two different squeeze boxes, also known as accordions, what I assumed was a lead guitar or maybe a bass, a drum set, a triangle and the aforementioned mystery instrument. The squeeze box guy also played what looked like a small steel guitar. A quick glance at the program revealed that it was called a lap steel.

It turned out that the mystery man was playing a box drum. I had never heard of a box drum before. It looked just like an ordinary wooden box that doubled as a seat. Hitting the drum in different places with his hands produced different sounds. There was a hole on one side of the box much like the hole in a guitar.

There are pages and pages of instructions on the internet about how to build this versatile instrument yourself. It is not simply an empty box as it has various components inside. The box drum has its roots in African slaves who had been brought to Peru long before we were born. I am uncertain as to how the drum made it from Peru all the way up to Louisiana and from Louisiana to a rainy evening in Indiana, but I’m glad it did.

The lead singer sang all of the songs in French, except one. The drummer sang that one in English. My long ago high school French was useless. Part of the problem was that the singer’s microphone was adjusted so that his voice blended into the total sound instead of being slightly louder than the instruments.

The Grammy-winning band often began the songs with just one instrument then added another and another until the sound filled the auditorium without being overwhelming. They ended many of the songs the same way by deleting one sound at a time until there was only one left.

One of the things I noticed was that the audience was primarily old and white. We fit right in. There were a few college aged people and even fewer non-whites. I expected a little more diversity but maybe that kind of music isn’t appealing to others.

All in all it was a nice way to spend a rainy Saturday evening. There are other free concerts coming up that sound appealing. There are several places in the area offering free music. It is a good way to spend time away from the television and phones that are ubiquitous these days. The venues are either outdoors or held in spaces that are large enough so that we can maintain social distancing.

In addition to having an enjoyable evening, I learned what a box drum was. And now you have, too.