Hearing the sound of that music and his laughter about the shade and then later, seeing those pictures of Mali, his home country, made me feel the place somewhere else than just my eyes: it was in my feet, Mali got into my head through my ears and my skin for that short time and stayed long enough to stick me with yet another irrational desire to pack my bags and wing off to Bamako, a place I know absolutely nothing about.
The whole thing is on Perceptive Travel. And because I didn’t say thank you on the published piece, I’ll say it here. Thank you to Sarah, Rod, John, Dan, Gregg, Pat K, Carel, Lori, and Mike, who bring music to my life.