Toubab Krewe

Shows at the Purple Fiddle

Visit Toubab Krewe on the web!

“a futuristic, psychedelic, neo-griot frenzy.”
– Village Voice

“a new standard for fusions of rock n’ roll and West African music.”
– Afropop Worldwide

“Their music avoids cliché with authentic extrapolations of traditional Manding beats, percussion, and jam-band flare.”
– The New Yorker

“…expertly meshed surf guitar with Malian rhythmic patterns, a Dick Dale moves-to-Timbuktu experiment in Afro-California fusion.”
– Boston Herald

Some music cannot be found on a map or within iTunes categories. Some music is so original it seems snatched from the great, invisible substrata that runs below all human activity, a sound aching to be born without a flag or fixed allegiance – free, questing, overflowing with immediate, tangible life. This is the music of Toubab Krewe, the vibrant Asheville, NC-based instrumental powerhouse that creates a sonic Pangaea that lustily swirls together rock, African traditions, jam sensibilities, international folk strains and more. While nearly impossible to put into any box, it takes only a few moments to realize in a very palpable way that one is face-to-face with a true original who recognizes no borders in a march towards a muscular, original, globally switched-on sound.

“Toubab Krewe has such a visceral, ear-yanking quality that in the band’s capable hands you just might find your definitions of what is/is not rock n’ roll and worldbeat being completely rewritten. This is the sound of liberation.”
– Blurt

“one of the most innovative voices in music today.”
– Honest Tune