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Rwandan Blues

from We'll Be Right Back! by Snipe Hunt

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about

Ehresman recalls: "I remember watching the news as the nightmare in Rwanda unfolded in the mid-90s......As more and more incomprehensible details came out, I had this gut feeling that our government--desperately checking the pulse of the American people--might have been more willing to intervene if the victims involved had been different....Maybe sitting on top of resources we really wanted......maybe not so very dark-skinned......And it made me really sad."

He continues "I didn't know I needed to write a song about it until a year and a half later, when Scott (the bass player) said he had some riffs he wanted me to flesh out and arrange into a song with lyrics....I was (and am) a big fan of music from all over Africa, and the licks Scott had were definitely in that vein.....That set the direction, and pretty soon I'd filled in the gaps and arranged it all into a complete piece of music......When I put pen to paper, suddenly all those feelings I'd had while watching and reading about the Rwandan slaughter came roaring back, and the lyrics to 'Rwandan Blues' basically wrote themselves."

Ehresman confesses "I wasn't sure if it was right to deal with this subject matter with upbeat, major key music......But then I realized that this is what African musicians do all the time.....write about even the worst troubles in their lives with some of the most fantastic, danceable music on the planet....And besides......there is no music sad enough to reflect what happened in Rwanda over 100 days in 1994."

Watch the video here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc5xC_H9050

lyrics

Rwandan Blues
(© 1997 lyrics--W. Ehresman; music--Scott Brannock/W. Ehresman)

Pass me the palm wine, the pombe, I need to get stoned;
The soldiers are coming to drive me away from my home.
The crops in the field aren't as high as they once were before;
But having a little is better than having none at all.

My friend left last week, I don't think that I'll see him again--
your cameras can't be everywhere in this country I live in.
When they take me off the path through the jungle where no one will see,
where we do to each other what once only you did to me.

[chorus]
Tagati, I see your television;
Tagati, I see your special shoes;
Tagati, you've moved on to the next country;
Left me here singing my Rwandan blues.

I die where I fall in that clearing so far from my home;
My neighbors die with me, but can't help from feeling alone;
There's rumors of conspiracy while animals pick at our bones;
But even with a close-up, would you feel it was one of your own?

* "tagati" is Swahili for "black magic"

credits

from We'll Be Right Back!, released May 1, 1999
Walter Ehresman--rhythm & lead guitars; talking drum; shaker; background & octave vocals; Scott Brannock--fretless bass; background vocals; cabasa; tubano; whistle; Vic Ramirez--lead vocals; acoustic 6-string guitar; cabasa; shaker; Pat Devaney--kit drums; conga; bell.

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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more

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