by Richard Newsham
Ranky Tanky—which means “get funky” in Gullah—will bring their Jazzy pollination of Gospel, Folk, R&B and Afrobeat music from the Carolina Coast to the Ventura College Performing Arts Center on Saturday, July 20, at 8 pm for the final weekend of the 25th anniversary of the Ventura Music Festival.
Hailed for their authentic “take me to church” “mainline Soul,” the dynamic quintet from Charleston performs in Ventura one week after appearing in New York City’s Central Park SummerStage and releasing of their second album Good Time and streaming EP Stand By Me.
Led by powerhouse vocalist and American Idol alum Quiana Parler, Ranky Tanky’s self-titled debut album soared to the top of the Billboard, iTunes and Amazon Jazz Charts within a month of release after NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross profiled the band in 2017.
Last summer Ranky Tanky took the Skirball Center’s Sunset Concerts by storm and The Today Show recently featured the band with their high-spirited arrangements of music passed down by generations of West African slave descendants from the Georgia and South Carolina coast.
Nobody can “do Gullah”—raise up a song—like this band, with their faithful, buoyant, heartbreaking and healing songs by their “We want freedom” Gullah ancestors, says the glowing press that is following their current nonstop tour of the U.S. and Europe.
As “ambassadors for a whole resilient culture” of praise, rebellion, joy and tragedy, they are “spreading the gospel of Gullah”—a fresh Southern sound that “makes the past new all over again.”
Don’t miss the Ranky Tanky experience that is sweeping the nation!
Richard Newsham is a Ventura Music Festival consultant.
