TOUBAB KREWE

You'll need two nights to explore the rock and West African music of Toubab Krewe.

The Friday and Saturday night double take at The Pour House will feature old favorites and a preview of new material off the group's sophomore album, "TK2," which won't be released until Tuesday on Nat Geo records.

The quintet from Asheville, N.C., often has been described as "indie rock meets West African tradition meets jam experimentation."

"One of the best ways to describe it is as Creole music," said percussionist Luke Quaranta. "Because I think with Creole, it is in its essence, the launch of a couple styles of music. It creates something different that integrates a lot of ingredients of different styles but is its own sound, its own entity."

"The word Creole works because it's a melange of West African traditional music, rock-'n'-roll, style from New Orleans and a healthy dose of old-time Appalachian music because a lot of us grew up in that tradition. It's a really unique sound."

The band would rather you dance to the groove than figure it out, though. Justin Perkins (kora, kamelngoni, guitar, percussion), Teal Brown (drums, congas), Drew Heller (guitar, piano, fiddle) and David Pransky (bass, guitar) round out the group, who have been touring all summer.

While their debut album was influenced by the road and had a looser jam sound, TK2 is a studio effort. Quaranta explains that the evolution to the current album includes both original and reworked traditional music.

"It's back and forth," he continued. "We're more than a bunch of white guys playing African music. I like to think we come from a long line of musicians being influenced by other cultures and styles of music, and finding that overlap."

Despite Toubab Krewe having formed only in 2005, its members have been studying music in Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mali for the past decade.

Each time, they revisit former teachers and meet up with new ones. Living with, playing with and traveling with diverse groups has made a strong connection with the West African musical culture for Toubab.

"Our primary focus was to study music," said Quaranta. "There's a deep intersection in the musical styles there, first the drumming, then the rest of the traditional music."

The Krewe would go from hanging out with their teachers and their families to going to the clubs, or even hearing and then making music on the street.

"Music and song are such a big part of the culture," Quaranta continued. "There's a deep history of music that carries forth the stories and the traditions of the culture in the music. Music is passed down through families of artists. I feel like the musicians and artists there have been very influenced by music from all over the world; over the four or five decades, their music is as influenced from other parts of the world as other parts of the world have been influenced by West Africa."