Agra to Arkinsas (from the album Country and Eastern) by Richard Lightman

Country & Eastern It was an accidental opportunity that led to the recording of the Country & Eastern album. I had arranged a concert of Bollywood and bhangra artists and dancers for the University of Kent. The musical director was my former associate and bhangra producer Kuljit Bhamra, MBE, with whom I had worked with in the early 1990s. It was during the programming of the event that Bhamra suggested that the two of us play together as an opening act to the concert. We had played on each other’s productions as session musicians over the years, overdubbing parts onto existing arrangements, but had actually never played together before. I was unsure as to whether a performance by the two of us would work but we came up with the idea that I would play guitar (my first instrument) in my familiar Western style and Kuljit would accompany me on tabla and Indian percussion, putting his stamp on the music. To test the concept, we met at his studio where we played together, extemporising and moving in and out of Western and Eastern styles. We were so enthused by this, that we decided that after the concert, we would record an album together. These tracks are from the album recorded. We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed making it.