Montage of River Kings, February 2015

The song River Kings (from my latest album South Wind, Clear Sky) was inspired by the months I spent in the Inner Niger Delta in Mali in 1980, as well as by the writings of Mungo Park, who went on two expeditions in the 1790s to try to discover and map the course of the Niger river. On his second, fateful trip, his canoe was ambushed west of Timbuktu, at the Bussa rapids, and he and his company were drowned. His journals of that expedition, which were kept in his top hat, have never been found.

During my adventures by the River Niger I came across the annual fishing festival of the Bozo people, who live along its banks. I was lucky to get a rare glimpse of this mysterious event and to be able to photograph it on an old Leica. Glen Johnson of Second Language Music has made my photos into a montage to accompany the song. You can look and listen here.