ahab

So here’s a band that doesn’t play around here: ahab. (And yes, that’s all lower case. Don’t be capitalizing that “a.”)

Remember: I hate to write about music. So what can I say about ahab’s music? They’re all fantastic songwriters. They sing in four part harmony. They’re really good at it. They’re independent, but they’re so NOT “indie.” (They look like they’re having a great time. Too much fun for “indie.”) If one insisted on genre-izing them, I suppose one could say they’re sorta country, sorta folky, but not really either.

So much for me describing their music.

They’re from the UK, and they play live in the UK. However, as the story has it (and it’s a true story, per all my paralegal-ish type research* on ahab) the band was born during a residency at world famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee. (And that’s the original Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. The one where legends come from.)

If you go to ahab‘s Twitter site, their bio reads: “ahab are a singer songwriter collective who formed in 2009 after being invited to play the annual ‘Fanfare’ Festival in Nashville.”

When I found out about ahab, I was very taken with the idea of a band from the UK playing music that sounds – uh, the way I’ve described it above – traveling all the way to the U.S. to play a string of gigs in Nashville. I was so taken with the idea, in fact, that I convinced myself ahab would come back and play in Nashville again. They would do this, and when they did, I would fly to Nashville and see/hear them live. (I had never been to Nashville. I wanted to visit Nashville. What kind of red-blooded American hasn’t been to Nashville, at least once?)

Right. So I knew, in 2010, ahab would return to the U.S. to play the Fanfare Festival, or just any kind of gig in Nashville. I started keeping an eye on plane fares to Nashville, TN. I mean, I just knew it.

But no. Instead, during 2010 ahab did things like play gigs all over the UK, play live on the BBC, and play on the main stage at Cropredy, a summer music festival.

But nothing in Nashville.

The current “tour” page of ahab’s website is an impressive read; and every single fucking show is in the UK.

So. I leave this mission to the rest of you. (Oh readers.) If you can fathom the awesomeness that is ahab, I ask, no, I implore you: do everything you can to get ahab to come and play somewhere, anywhere in the U.S., so I can finally see/hear them live (and so somebody with some real music press credentials in the U.S. can write them up some more great and real press.)

Because unless you do (unless somebody does) we may never, in the U.S., experience this:

I think that would be criminal.

(I did finally make it to Nashville in 2010. But that’s a different blog.)

*Some people call this “stalking.”