Through the acquaintance of a reformed child-soldier, Grammy-winning producer, author, and intrepid discoverer of new music, Ian Brennan (Malawi Mouse Boys, Tinariwen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, The Good Ones [Rwanda], etc.), has discovered a group of musicians from the Acholi tribe on the northern border of Uganda. Acholi Machon is a band that often swells to 15 members, arriving to the recording riding tandem on motorcycles, helmetless, and having crossed over 100 miles of bumpy dirt roads. They are led by singer Gaetano Otira Tep Yer Yer, a small man with a hunched back due to having injured himself as a child by falling from a tree. Lapwong is an album of hard-hitting protest songs and there is a strong connection to our own roots music tradition says Ian Brennan, “In a region where you’re more likely to hear Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton on the radio than classic rock from America, it becomes clearer how closely connected our roots-music tradition and theirs can be. At the same time, the percussive nature and narrow sonic range of their instruments creates an almost psychedelic sonic tapestry.”