Paul Simon's Graceland album came into my life during a par�cularly special �me in my young development. The unique rhythms and melodies, paired with the very powerful voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo (a contemporary South African a cappella group) touched me in ways no other music ever had. The songs accomplished myriad different sounds and archetypes, with melodies feeling light and free, yet o�en �mes lyrically heavy. The tracks on this album have a wis�ul, light and bouncy feel, while touching on darker corners of life’s turmoil in the lyrics – a sort of beau�ful irony in that the music is charged with whimsical spontaneity in it’s feel, but much of the lyrical content points to darker themes of pain and loss. I don’t know what Paul’s inten�ons were in wri�ng these songs the way he did, but to me it feels a lot like mindfulness in mo�on...seeing, feeling and acknowledging and holding our awareness on painful concepts, but having enough presence to recognize that there is also happiness and fun in these moments if we allow enough space within ourselves to maintain an awareness of both...but Paul might read this and say I’m way off :)
To be honest, if I were going to speak in more technical terms with regard to this album and its crea�on, I’d just end up whipping up another version of what 
Instead of atemp�ng to redo what I feel has already been done really well, I thought I might use this space to talk about this par�cular song, its connec�on to me, and why I chose to use it for today’s performance.
As a young teen, I had travelled a good bit with my family and gone along with many moves around the world resul�ng from my dad’s career as a member of the army band...but s�ll, I would not consider myself as having been worldly at the �me. This song – and a lot of the album – felt like a window into another world (ironic, no? Losing love is like a window in your heart).
My musical interests went in phases throughout my years. In the first years, I liked the kid music that prety much all kids like. As my developmental focus shi�ed from the emo�onal to the mental, I began taking on the music of my parents in that natural subconscious early age drive to please them. Next, when my developmental focus shi�ed once further, from mental to physical, and my need to please had changed from trying to please my parents to reflec�ng and projec�ng them onto others/”fit in,” I began making musical choices that jived with the other kids I was mee�ng. I had just moved to New York, and the first friend groups I tried ge�ng in with were all punk rockers or metal heads, so naturally, that’s what I got into. I hadn’t found my own music or my own way, I had just found a group to conform with that wasn’t my parents...so when the Graceland album flowed and �ckled my tympanic membrane, it excited me with the promise of something different and special. There was no group of kids in my high school who would want to be caught jamming to this, but somehow to me it felt so authen�c.
Listening to this song, I could close my eyes and see Joseph. In my mind’s eye, he strolled like Andy Dufresne through the prison yard; surrounded by wilderness and a poten�ally hos�le environment yet, focused on the beauty of nature around him and the stars above, his face looked serenely content, his resolve unwavering, and his path unobscured. As I struggled to make friends and fit in in my new environment, I drew strength from my vision of Joseph and, somehow, I believed this song had been writen, performed and released in the past...just so it could be here for me in this �me.
The Graceland album gives me great joy and inspira�on to this day, so recently I printed off the chords and set out to learn this song (among several from the album). A week or two ago, I began prac�cing a technique I’ve never really worked on before, using the body of the guitar as a percussive instrument. When I first start prac�cing a new technique, I tend to gravitate towards finding songs that will meld with the new technique organically and rela�vely easily...this helps me turn the "new technique” into a standard tool in my tool box, and once it reaches that point it’s usually fairly easy to adapt the technique to other (more challenging) applica�ons. For the percussive playing technique, that meant finding a song with minimal chord changes, minimal nuances, and hopefully no challenging chords...that meant that Under African Skies would be a great test bed for the percussive technique, and I believe that proved to be an accurate analysis.
This song is just | C F C G | repeat...the whole �me. Verse and chorus share the same rhythm and melody, dis�nguished only by varia�on of overtones. When I set out to play/record this song, the inten�on was only to use the kick drum (the palm against the body of the guitar gives a bass-like “kick drum” sound) – but when I got to the chorus, something in me just ins�nc�vely chose to try doing kick and snare drums together (snare drum is emulated by smacking the E and A strings with the side of the thumb). I didn’t plan that or anything, so it kind of threw me off when it happened, but when I saw what I was doing and realized I had subconsciously changed the percussive sound to accent the chorus, I knew I’d have to stay focused and remember to (A) switch back to only the kick drum when returning to the verse, and (B) switch again back to the kick/snare combo for the second chorus...this certainly impacted my �ming and thought process during recording, as it was a wildly unplanned modifica�on, but it came out surprisingly well, so I’ve decided to keep this rough version with its imperfec�ons. Also, no�ce a�er the first da oomba oomba part or whatever, there was a cool accident that happened where my fingers got caught up in the strings and accidentally played a 16th note! As I prac�ce this song going forward, I will be trying to repeat that and spread it throughout to give the melody a more well-rounded feel. There are also many other percussive techniques I have yet to try/learn, but currently I feel that these basics should be prety well mastered before I try to move on and add further complica�ons.
Anyway, sorry this got a litle longer than required...extra points if you read the whole thing!
▶️ 3Speak