I first saw K'naan @ Glastonbury a few years ago now. It was him, a djembe and a guitarist. He was headlining one of the smaller 'urban/ roots/ hip hop stages on the Sunday night. It started small but throughtout his performance the crowd grew. His music, straight from his soul, shone through. For me and many others lucky enough to be there, he was the highlight of the festival.
Fast forward to Troubadour - full on production but still the man shone through. I've not yet met someone who has not fallen in love with this album on hearing it.
Then the 'madness'. It seemed like everything we had loved had been overwhelmed by other 'third party' interests. We could all see that people who did not understand K'naan were starting to take control of him and his music.
So I came to Monday's gig hoping to see a redemption of the light within K'naan. Or to accept it had gone.
Clearly this was at the end of a long and exhausting tour. The first few tracks 'ABC' & 'Dreamer' felt like they were going through the motions...but after a couple of tracks he started to talk, in that humble soft voice of his, to the audience. Here stood someone tired, exhausted, bewildered who needed to know that what he cared about , we cared about. His music.
The gig took a turn and K'naan started to come back to us. Suddenly meaning and soul started to pour back into every song.
Wavin' Flag was played as Wavin' Flag.
I picked up the set list at the end and it ended on Wavin'Flag - the good 20 mins that he played on after - captured much of what we came to see.
K'naan is one of the most gifted artists in the world. And despite the world having seen K'naan in the last 12 months, they have yet to truly hear him as we did.
See you all on the 14th Nov @ Koko . Keep the faith!