Ranky Tanky :: O Death :: Live at Philadelphia Folk Festival - 8/19/17

From the South Carolina low-country, where life is laced with African ways, comes Ranky Tanky, a quintet with music rooted in Gullah culture. Descendants of enslaved Africans isolated on the southeastern Sea Islands, Gullah is a unique mix of African and English that has shaped American art, food, language, and attitude. Translated loosely as “Get Funky!“ Ranky Tanky updates traditional Gullah game songs, spirituals, and shouts with gospel vocals, jazz trumpet, and an R&B rhythm section. “Ranky Tanky, from Charleston, S.C., sings old Gullah songs — some of them sly moral lessons — in arrangements that connect their beat to a New Orleans lilt.“ - NEW YORK TIMES “The biggest surprise of [GlobalFEST], Ranky Tanky proved that exotic music can be both unfamiliar enough to be surprising, and yet familiar enough to provoke swinging hips and nodding heads. When it