The Concert Sutra Loving Snake Oil Medicine Show & Ras Alan

by terri sapp

Photographs by Leah Yetter

© Concert Sutra, All Rights Reserved

click photos for band website

            Just after the turning over of the new year, I heard a rumor that a really cool bluegrasstafarian group, Snake Oil Medicine Show, would be opening a show at the Georgia Theatre.  I had heard mention of SOMS from close friends before.  Having to work on Fridays, and not living in Athens usually prevents me from making the Georgia Theatre before the second act comes on.  However, having heard of the good time that is a Medicine Show, and also finding out that there would be a bonafide reggae master in the house, Ras Alan, I knew immediately that I would do whatever it took to make it for the WHOLE show from the first second!!!

            From the beginning, there was reggae music playing over-head, which was the perfect vibe to get the crowd ready for what was to come.  Having never heard one note from either the Snake Oil Medicine Show or Ras Alan, I did not know what I was in for.  Before the show started, I went over to check out the merchandise table and check out what they were all about, and much to my surprise, there were band members AND Mr. Alan setting up and waiting to go on stage.  I couldn’t help but be drawn to want to say hello to who I found out to be Ras Alan, basically, just because of the positive vibration that exudes from him and the dreadlocks that have, over many years, grown all the way down his back!  Continue reading →