Bongo Boy TV presents The Bongo Boy Rock n’ Roll TV show series – Episode 07 Season 13 – Crazy Direction

Finding new music to listen to, new artists to explore, and new sounds to absorb might seem like the easiest thing in the modern age. It’s there at the touch of a button. Isn’t it? All you have to do is fire up the search engine…and get 14.7 million choices back for your perusal. You could check out the “If you like that, you’ll like this” function on music platforms, but most of those connections are tenuous at best, and the songs offered by the bots and algorithms have little in common. Visit some music blogs, and you may find that they are not only writing only about their friend’s bands but making them sound like the next Beatles. (Not this blog, other inferior blogs!) Yes, the modern world might be full of choices, but too much choice doesn’t help you narrow things down when it comes to finding new music.

That’s when you need The Bongo Boy Rock n’ Roll TV show – a short, sharp, and shockingly in tune with current tastes, broadcast of the best new music, curated, checked, ordered, quality assured, re-checked, and finally shortlisted offering of music and video of all the music that matters this month. Bongo Boy does all the hard work, so you don’t have to lift a finger. Just sit back, watch, and listen; let the best music come to you.

Crazy, from the album of the same name, kicks off with Athxna’s slice of street-infused neo-soul. Her languid and relaxed vocals betray the dark story of adduction at the song’s heart. It’s an extraordinary mix of the old-school jazz-blues chantress and the more contemporary urban soul diva, as well as a blend of timeless vocal styles and cutting-edge electro-sonics.

Sydney’s Guard, based in Kampal, Uganda, continues the modern vibes with Sense of Direction, an incendiary blend of dance floor moves and Afrobeat grooves, reggae-style toasting, and ultra-disco poise. OnnaDi makes it three for three with the contemporary, dance-drive sounds of Keep A Smile – spacious, hazy electronica, a song reduced down to its very essence—seductive vocals, a reggaeton beat, and a killer video. What more could you ask for? What more do you need?

The real change in direction comes with Lissa Coffey and David Vito Gregoli’s Krishna Govinda, a lilting, chiming, cascading piece full of Indian tones and western pop moves, ragga beats, and dancefloor grooves, scintillating sitars, and rock guitars. Add to that a video full of color and life, and you have the perfect meeting of east and west, orient dancing with occident.

As the name might suggest, Miss Lady Blues deals in sultry and sensual blues vocals; this is the authentic sound of the genre, one that has served us well for a hundred years or more, brought up to date just enough to keep the sound real and relevant. Good Woman might take the often austere nature of the blues torch song as its starting point, but Our Lady softens its edges with poised production and soulful warmth, injects it with contemporary energy via more ornate sonics, but essentially walks in the footsteps of the greats. Blues ain’t broke; Miss Lady Blues didn’t fix it; she just gave the music a much-needed, minor overhaul to keep it moving along perfectly and in harmony with modern tastes.

North Country sees Barry Keenan take us on an alt-rock journey that feels like a sonic map to a place that can only be found by listening closely to the song’s words. Ebbing and flowing between understated rhythms and explosive choruses, guitars grind, pianos chime, and Keenan’s lush voice is joined by a raft of heavenly vocals. I’ll see you all there.

With Mercy Alu’s African Queen, another shot of Afrobeat groove, the show is rounded off, and here, the music stays authentic to that continent, even though she is based in Chicago! The beats are fast and groovesome, the backing vocals dark and warm, the riffs fluid and fabulous, and Mercy’s vocals fall as a sweet serenade on the listener. The video of the places and people of that land adds the requisite color and vibrancy to the song.

And there you have it—seven more not-to-be-missed songs, seven great artists, and seven fantastic videos. That should keep you busy until the next episode comes around, which it always does much sooner than you think.