SIERRA LEONE'S REFUGEE ALL STARS: FROM A REFUGEE CAMP IN REMOTE AFRICA, WRITING SONGS FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR

FOLLOWING AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILM, ABC MUSIC IS SET TO RELEASE THE ALBUM 'LIVING LIKE A REFUGEE' TRACING THE GROUP'S INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

"As harrowing as these personal tales may be, the music buoying them is uplifting. The cliché bears repeating: music heals and creates community." -Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES

On March 24 2007, ABC Music will release 'Living Like A Refugee' by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. The group’s incredible story has been told via the film 'Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars' - one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the past year - which traces the incredible journey of a group of musicians who fled their native Sierra Leone in West Africa during that country's brutal ten year civil war, eventually journeying back to be reunited with family and friends, and realize their dream of recording in a proper studio.

Recorded over a three-year period, from August 2002 to October 2005, the songs on the album highlight the absorbing story told in the film. After fleeing Sierra Leone, the members of the SLRAS came together in the Sembakounya Refugee Camp deep in the remote countryside of neighbouring Guinea. They made their earliest recordings there, some of which are included on this album. Imagine the scene: by the light of an oil lamp, the SLRAS provide soul-searing harmonies accompanied by impossibly worn acoustic guitars and makeshift percussion on songs that address suffering and hope in equal measure. Elsewhere on the album this spirit is amplified, literally and figuratively, on tracks recorded at Island Studios in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after the members of the SLRAS returned to their homeland.

Lyrically, the SLRAS' songs decry the insanity of war, the corruption that surrounds them, and the living conditions they endured all in poetic, at times wry fashion (“When two elephants are fighting/The grass them a suffer.”). As the SLRAS combine elements of West African music, reggae, rhythmic traditional folk and hip-hop, the results are earthy, emotionally charged, and indomitable.

The members of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars are diverse in age and character. From Reuben M. Koroma, the sage, 42-year old songwriter and guiding light of the group, to Black Nature, an orphaned teenage rapper. Yet they have a common bond in the loss and displacement caused by Sierra Leone's civil war, and a shared belief in the transformative power of music.

In 2006 the band leapt onto the world stage, playing high profile festivals including Bonnaroo, Montreal Jazz Fest and New York’s Summerstage, as well as Fuji Rock in Japan. Along with two tours of the U.S. and Canada and another through Europe, the band also found time to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show where they performed the album’s title track “Living Like a Refugee” live. Their music was featured in the film Blood Diamond featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, and they have appeared onstage and recorded with friends Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. 2007 has already seen the band perform at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars’ next stop will be their Australian debut at the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival on March 31 followed by a tour of the east coast with appearances at the Prince Ballroom Melbourne, the Basement Sydney and heading north to Byron Bay for the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival, their last stop being the Pt Nepean Festival in Melbourne April 7.

TOUR DATES

March
Saturday 31st West Coast Blues Festival, Perth

April
Sunday 1st Prince Ballroom, Melbourne
Monday 2nd The Basement, Sydney

Thursday 5th East Coast Blues Festival, Byron Bay
Friday 6th East Coast Blues Festival, Byron Bay
Saturday 7th Pt Nepean Festival, Melbourne


Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars “Living Like a Refugee” their debut album available March 24, through ABC Music.

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