So last night I was at a lovely concert at World Cafe Live. It was a showcase of local Philly bands — most good, some mediocre, a few great. But there was one performance in particular that I found fascinating.

The group was Angel Band, who had a blues/bluegrass/rootsy kind of style. But their very first song, opening the set, was an a capella invocation to none other than Elegba, the Yoruban trickster/gate-guardian deity worshipped across African Diasporic religions like Vodoun, Santería, and Candomble…

Hey Papa Legba
Open the gate
Help us to sing like the angels

(roughly remembered, but hopefully accurate, lyrics)

An all-white, bluegrass/roots band invoking a Yoruban deity at the start of their act. You can believe that my eyebrows were shooting through the roof…

I don’t know Elegba very well. I wonder what he thought.