New York: Day Two - Syracuse
I mentioned yesterday that I'm currently staying with my old friend Joe Driscoll in Syracuse. As my time here has largely been spent just chilling with him and Eliza, now’s the perfect time to tell you a little more about this particular A star human being and super talented soul.
He may well be familiar to anyone who spent time on the UK festival circuit during the second half of the 2000s. He was a favourite of the Chai Wallahs tent in particular (a UK festival institution, which you can still find at Green Man, Kendal Calling and Shambala in particular. Check the playlist below for their vibe at the time), both solo with his loop pedal, guitars, tambourine and occasional didgeridoo, or partnered with the "Jimi Hendrix of the Kora" Sekou Kouyate from Guinea (and later their awesome band).
I first met Joe after his Chai Wallah gig at the second and penultimate Bloom Festival in 2007. I'd been marooned there after losing my lift home, and had luckily found a whole set of new friends. I'm not sure if we accosted him and his manager at the time Trey, a lovely large liability of a man from Atlanta who had previously managed Dangermouse and Cee Lo Green (pre Gnarls Barkley), or if they joined us of their own free will, but they spent a good chunk of the night jamming, and life long friendships were formed. At the time he was over in the UK from his home in Syracuse, promoting his second album Mixtape Champs - which I recommend sticking on right after you finish reading this. He ended up hanging around a few years longer and in 2011 I booked him for a show at Cardiff Arts Institute, where we'd once again jammed through the night, Joe only taking his hand off his trusty guitar to let me DJ, then playing non stop til the sun rose and his hands were bleeding, taking any of the requests we could throw at him, and playing them all like he had the worlds biggest jukebox strapped to his soul.
Skip forward a year or two and we both ended up moving to Bristol around the same time, so shared a couple of houses with some friends. He had started touring with Sekou and I had just begun booking for Boomtown. These were undoubtedly exciting times so we often passed like ships in the night, but there was a lovely vibe in the house and Joe was never short of interesting conversations. He cared passionately for the world that he spent his life travelling around and that was clear. Whilst he rarely lost his cool troubadour demeanour, he was often frustrated at the injustices he saw.
Joe and Sekou’s relationship was complicated. On stage they shone every single time. Their live show was uplifting and enchanting. Off stage they would often clash and it started to take its toll on Joe. They finally called it a day, leaving behind two great albums and a ton of memorable performances and he moved back to Syracuse in 2015. Soon after he got involved with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, helping the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to raise the money needed to continue their work. From there he set up various fundraisers for different causes and eventually got involved with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. He raised $30,000 but because he’d set up the fundraising under a Political Action Committee, he found out that he couldn’t just pass the money on to the national campaign, he had to use it to run a regional campaign. So from there he became Bernie’s local representative for Syracuse and in the process learned a lot about local politics. After encouragement from those around him, he ran for City Council in 2017 and won. He went on to win another two times, staying in office for four years. He’s now the I81 Project Director, which from my very limited understanding involves levelling a raised highway to street level through the town, and in doing so, trying to bridge the economic gap between communities. In researching New York I’ve got to learn a lot about Robert Moses, and it sounds like they're basically doing the opposite of his approach, which whilst it was effective in many ways, did major damage to communities across the state. It sounds like Joe has his work cut out for him, but it’s always good to know when the right kind of people are in those positions.
Joe still performs solo shows around his neighbourhood, he also DJs occasionally and puts on a weekly free street festival at Hanover Square in Syracuse with some of the city’s other great bands. I went down with him to Hanover Thursdays and caught a local Latin Soul band called Grupo Pagan and another act called R&B Band, a talented bunch of performers, whose music is pretty self explanatory. There was such a great vibe in the square, plus there were market stalls, a bar selling craft beer and a truck that mostly sold Acai Bowls and smoothies, including what proved to be the best damn beverage I’ve ever had in my life, a Mangonada, which is fresh Mango with a spicy Mexican sauce called Chamoy and Tajin seasoning. A real taste sensation I promise you.
Whilst in Hanover Square, I picked up some local history from the signs there. In the 19th century, Syracuse was the "great central depot" of the secret Underground Railroad, a network of people helping those in slavery to escape. In 1850 it was celebrated as a free city, though the flipside of the sign made it clear not all of he residents here celebrated that fact at the time.
To this day the city aims to continue helping those who are fleeing grave situations, hosting a significant percentage of refugees from around the world, with many organisations set up here to accommodate that, and a number of initiatives aimed at creating space and engagement for the various communities who now call Syracuse home.
One such project is Salt City Market, a large food hall that we visited for brunch, with a solid selection of Thai, Iraqi, Jamaican, Burmese, Soul Food and more. Anybody who clicked on this post hoping to find some local recommendations for the city, this is your moment. The food I had from the Ethiopian stall Habiba's was so tasty and the platter that Joe and Eliza had looked equally appealing. I can also recommend a mushroom root beer from the Cooperative Market there, no seriously!
Right, time to hit the road for New York City. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.
