Live shows showcase mastery of styles

Afrograss folk rock: A study in the one-man show.

Arthur Lee Land's live show is, in a word, kinetic.

The Colorado-based musician jumps around the stage like a man possessed, with an acoustic slung over his back, a variety of African percussion instruments at his side and a bass guitar on a stand, he bounces between instruments, playing each one to make a musical whole.

He does it all himself, but not all at once.

Land uses the technology of looping to create a full band from one man using African percussion, acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, guitar synth, vocals and a talk box. The style is self-described -- "A One-Man Afrograss Folk Rock Ensemble."

It's a mouthful of words to describe a music that blends genres like West African percussive music, bluegrass and folk to make one surprisingly coherent whole. On Saturday, Land will unleash his one-man ensemble at the Rude Dog Pub at 10 p.m.

Land said he decided to try the one-man approach a few years ago, when acoustic folk and conventional combos just got too boring for him.

"I bought a loop machine at Guitar Center and started from there, so it was kind of an evolution," said Land.

The looping started in 2000, at the time with just beat box and guitar. It wasn't until Land took a trip to West Africa in 2001 that the "Afrograss" part came in to play, when he fell in love with African percussion.

A typical Land live song might start with a simple rhythmic acoustic guitar part. The loop begins, and the guitar is slung over his back in order to pick up one, then two, then maybe three different African percussion instruments.

Then a short bass loop is played on a bass, and Land picks up his Telecaster to play lead and sing, with the acoustic slung over his back the whole time. The end result is a unique show experience, with the sound of a full band but the sight of only one man.

Land could, of course, have done this with a full band, but where's the challenge in that?

"I've played in bands for years," said Land.

Land comes from the tradition of jam, which is closely related to folk, African percussion and even bluegrass. Michael Travis of The String Cheese Incident even plays on Land's newest CD, "Dragonfly," and he recently played a Hurricane Katrina benefit show in Colorado that had him opening for artists like Yonder Mountain String Band and featured members of Leftover Salmon, Dark Star Orchestra and Phil Lesh's Phil and Friends.

But Land said his music is about more than just the jam scene.

"It's wider than just a jam band crowd," said Land. "A lot of the jam band fans are fans of what I do, so we love to jam, and we write songs that appeal to kind of the folk and rock, pop and bluegrass. But our fan base is a really wide range of people who dig this music."

msanders@semissourian.com

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