Papa Mali will open his West Coast tour July 4th weekend at the High Sierra Music

Festival. For this outing, his band will consist of former New Monsoon/Tiny Universe
bassist Ron Johnson and drummer Big”Thomas McCree, who has worked with Lyrics Born.
For the group’s High Sierra appearances, organist Will Blades (Stanton Moore
Trio) will round out the trio.
It has already been a busy year for Papa Mali, who kicked off his summer tour at
Wakarusa, where he paid tribute to the late Bo Diddley with versions of ‘Who
Do You Love?’” and “‘Hey Bo Diddley.’” In addition to his own performances,
Papa Mali also performed with the Everyone Orchestra, before jetting off to Colorado
for a short run that included a sit in by Vince Hermann in Denver.
Papa Mali also spent a week in New Orleans around JazzFest, where he was filmed
with an all-star band for Tommy Lee’s new reality show _Battleground
Earth_, which will air in August on the Discovery Network
and will focus on various green and environmental issues. Besides Lee, Papa Mali
also performed onstage with an eclectic mix of musicians, including Ludacris, Jojo
Hermann, Cyril Neville, Henry Butler and Ruthie Foster.
Looking ahead, Papa Mali will record a live CD this August and play two shows in
Honolulu around Halloween, with a fall European tour also in the works.