Come Saturday, we set sail for The New World. Cause we ruined this one quite nicely.

Come Saturday, we set sail for JikiJikiJa.

We will do as our ancestors, use our wits and our earned skills and survive. We will trade with natives, always keeping a careful eye on history, of what can be said of us 200 years later.

We will remain vigilant, we will retain our home in our veins, but we got to beat feet quick.

This is an allusion to an illusion. The trip we take will never leave land.  JikiJikiJa is as much a place as ‘Heaven’ or ‘Shangri-La’. It’s is a state of being.

So let’s get to being , eh?

I am so excited. You can tell cause my cherry new t shirt says it. I am so excited. And I just can’t hide it.

Come Saturday… JikiJikiJa (Jason, Julie and Jack) plays our first gig in New Haven, at Never Ending Books (810 State Street, New Haven) at 8:00 PM with special guest Leila Crockett. You should go. I don’t say that lightly. I recognize the volume of entertainment choices you have at your disposal.

Regardless….heed my advice. Nothing you can’t just DVR.

Part of this excitement is a familiarity of circumstance. The Rev and Brad booked Grimm Generation early, our second gig. Carmen and I were so excited, so nervous. What Grimm always exceeded at was feeling unwanted, and the idea that a joint in New Haven liked us was just….glee. That first gig we played with The Peacock Flounders (who were having a documentary made about them at the gig which was mind blowing and too cool) and met Kerry Miller (Grimm Generation drummer), Sal Paradise (the driving force of Rope, who we played with more than a few times). That first gig was a shot in the arm for two glum cat’s who din’t think they were acceptable in any way.

So of course, hit reset, the ball spins again and our first New Haven stop is Never Ending

First off, Leila. I have been a fan of Leila Crockett since ‘Birthday Gun’ off the ‘Not Before Our Time’ compilation (also a Never Ending Books concoction), and have had the good fortune to share a stage once with before (in New London, where she played in a hospital johnny. You know. Cabaret’s…).

If there is a word I can attach to seeing Leila, the word is ageless. Her voice. It brings up in the consciousness old scratchy vinyl sides of Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. A guitar in her hands and that voice transports you, transforms you. Close your eyes and let history inform you.

Then, off to JikiJikiJa.

I am not making this easy. I can explain what we are, but I can’t play you what we do. I am going to ask something of you that is running thin these days, but it’s the only way to get the Earth back on axis.

You need to trust me.

I know.

This is a passion play. It is not marketable.  This is what we trade with The New World oncoming.

JikiJikiJa Is … Jason P. Krug (singer, strummer, stomper), Julie Kay (cello) and Jack Adanti (hand percussion, cajon, conga) . Having served time together in the acclaimed The Grimm Generation, when Jason started his solo album, he asked Julie to come along. The result was 2016’s breakthrough album ‘The Zen Of Losing’ by Jason P. Krug.

Jason and Julie continued fine tuning the material from ‘The Zen Of Losing’ and the dynamics and themes of the record bloomed. Whisper quiet things (better left unsaid). Loud cacophony of accusations. Regrets and renewals.  Space inside the songs to explore.

But you still couldn’t dance to it. Enter former Grimm Generation beat maker Jack Adanti, playing a wild mixture of shaky and stomping beats.  And the sound grew into something beyond.

No longer simply a live unit to promote a simple record, JikiJikiJa (and amalgam of their J-centric names and an old Tyrannosaurus Rex lyric) became  something unique, equal parts pastoral relief and mass fury. The Power Of Three. Unplugged.

Join us this Saturday night , 11/19 at Never Ending Books. I promise you it will be a night you remember.

Plus…win stuff!!!!!!

Win a free copy of Jason P Krug ‘s ‘The Zen Of Losing’ by providing the following answer Saturday night at Never Ending Books. Ready…..Set….and don’t post answer!!!!….GO!

‘I am brown on the outside and green within, overly honest but not the sharpest tool in the shed, if you get my drift. Who / What / Where am I?’