A Six String Nation birthday story for January 1st (part one).

It’s a long shot but it is conceivable that Adam Solomon and I might have passed by each other in our respective mothers’ arms 53 years ago. I was born in Kampala, Uganda and left about age 15 months, boarding a ship in the famous port city of Mombassa, Kenya when Adam would have been about 6 months old. Who knows?
But we definitely met by the time we were in our 30s. Adam was working with a number of Toronto-based African music artists while I was coordinating the production of their shows at Harbourfront Centre or playing their music on my radio shows at CKLN and CBC.

After working with some major African artists he settled in Toronto and had foundational roles with people like Tarig Abubakar and the Afronubians, ShowDo Man, Achilla Orru and others — including his own band, Tikisa. The breadth of his knowledge and experience of multiple African music genres (among other things) earned him the nickname of “The Professor” — a role he continued in his membership with the Juno Award winning African Guitar Summit.

Adam was early to the game with Voyageur. We had talked about the project while it was being planned and built and he was among the first to play it live on stage during our inaugural summer tour in 2006 at the Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival in Owen Sound. Since then, he’s played Voyageur as part of AGS shows at The Danforth Music Hall and for a solo record release party at Lula Lounge. It’s always a pleasure to have Adam play Voyageur and I look forward to the next time!

Happy birthday, Adam!

Six String Nation is a project centred around a world-exclusive acoustic guitar literally built from pieces of history and heritage that reveal the stories of different communities, cultures, characters and events from every part of Canada.

It offers a conception of Canada that is at once historical, contemporary, dynamic, personal, emotional, generous, inclusive and proudly Canadian.

The portrait, part of a collection of approximately 150,000 images of 15,000 different people taken at events in every province and territory of Canada, is by Doug Nicholson.

Jowi Taylor is a Peabody Award winning former broadcaster and a recipient of Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal for his work on Six String Nation.