Spatula Forum

We saw African singing legend Youssou N'Dour Tuesday night in a local free concert. Although we're in a tiny town, we do have this really nice free summer concert series that is held down at the park by the riverside each summer. It was a real kick to have Youssou N'Dour come to town — he's one of the finest singers you'll ever hear, perhaps most familiar to American audiences for his stunning vocal solo on Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" (firmly up there in my top five songs of all time list). Singing mostly in the Sengalese Wolof tongue and French, N'Dour manages to make beautiful sounds without you being able to understand a word of it. It was a real fine time to sit out at the park with the wife and Peter, and with the size of the park we were able to sit far enough from the stage to not have Peter get disturbed by the loud music. N'Dour was a rousing success, charismatic and energetic, with some amazing vocal turns. Little Peter even "danced" a little bit with some help from Dad, and spent most of the rest of the time wide-eyed at the many distractions to be found. More fun than sitting at home sweating in the summertime.