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George Lowe has had a long time interest in global music of all stripes. As a former member of Richmond bands Ululating Mummies, Rattlemouth, and Hotel X, he took a particular shine to the music of Ethiopia’s club scene. He taught himself how to transpose the music he was hearing into charts his bandmates could play.  Gathering musicians from some of the aforementioned groups, along with alumni of VCU’s celebrated jazz program, he formed the Afro-Zen Allstars in 2014.

We first enjoyed the thoughtful story songs of North Carolina son of a preacher man and Gulf War veteran Jonathan Byrd when he played our concert series solo nearly a dozen years ago. He’s spent the last two decades sharing his gift of telling small, simple, human stories in an eloquent and elegant way.

This show spotlights the New England collective known as Crocodile River Music, a talented and diverse collaborative dedicated to preserving and celebrating traditional African culture.

“Our current space is tiny and rather inaccessible. We have 20 rickety, like, Victorian death stairs to go up,” said Melissa Vaughn, president of the nonprofit that operates the radio station.

A group of friends formed around In Your Ear Studios is launching Shockoe Records with five Richmond-area artists on its roster.