“My son has a band” are words most folks who do bookings dread hearing.  Usually it means a polite review and awkward rejection of really uninspiring talent, so when David Jordan’s mother approached me at the 2008 Dulicbrrr Festival regarding her son’s band I took down the name and promised to listen to the MySpace page.  In this case however, I was delighted by what I heard and immediately booked them into Java City.  In a musical world of dreadful, monotonous sameness,  Aby Laby Land has managed to produce with a unique, melodic sound that draws in an audience and holds their attention.  Headquartered in Louisville, KY, Aby Laby Land are: David Jordan: guitar, mandolin, accordion, and vocals, Nathaniel Rosenbarger: guitar, ukulele, Mark Saliga: percussion.  After the extremely positive response they received during their first appearance at Java City, I booked them again to similar results.  I spoke recently with Nathaniel Rosenbarger.

Where did you get the name Aby Laby Land?

Aby Laby Land is the name of a world discovered by David’s sons, River and Elijah. There’s an entire mythology there and it was really the only name we thought of that suited the music. We figured knowing you were listening to Aby Laby Land would prepare you for what we were doing.

Can you tell us a bit about your personal and musical history?

I got my start in high school playing guitar in a punk rock band in rural Kentucky, then had a sort of post-punk outfit in college, and had kind of lost the vision till I picked up the ukulele, then started playing with David. David has been singing and playing in bands since high school, when we met he was playing solo and had so many amazing songs. Mark has been playing percussion for most of his life and has sat in on every sort of session from jazz and blues to Aby Laby Land.

How did you get started?

I started working for David in ’06 and it’s never long before musicians start talking shop, so before long we were spending a lot of time playing on front porches. But when we wrote “Where is the Internet” and played it for our friends, that we had something special. The ease with which we wrote a pretty complex song was so promising to the both of us that we knew we’d be making music together for a long time.

Who influenced you as musicians?

Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Les Paul, Chet Adkins, Claude Debussy, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rachmanninov, Ravel, I know David loves Neil Young and Mark loves old Snoop Dogg.

What is your favorite sort of gig?

I’ve got to say festivals. I love to go to festivals anyhow, so when you get to go for free, and play music, that’s just hard to beat.

Your music is really unique, how do you define your sound?

Usually with a lot of “um”‘s. It’s hard to define, even for us, because it’s kind of the point to be amorphous. We want to engage the listener, there are melodies that draw you in, hypnotize you, and before you know it you’re somewhere else. That’s the idea anyhow. But essentially I think its folk music, it’s classically influenced, it’s influenced by rock and roll, and pop, and world music. So hopefully the music is all these things, that’s what we’re going for.

I know you write a lot of your music, where to you get the ideas for your songs? Can you describe your process of songwriting?

Inspiration varies, sometimes we jam to warm up and there winds up being a song that emerges. Sometimes I’ll have a complete song that I bring to David or he’ll bring one to me. Most of the songs for the next CD are David’s. But we go over them and over them, arranging and rearranging until we’re satisfied. But then again, no song is ever complete, most of them have been evolving from the beginning.

Where do you want go with your music?

I have fantasies of working with an orchestra. We’ve talked about writing for movies, I had the opportunity to help write music for a short film and it was very rewarding, I’d love to try again. But the idea is to be musicians, to challenge ourselves and rise to new levels with our art, and maybe one day make a living with it.

Are you going on tour sometime soon?

We’d like to tour the next CD.

Tell us about your latest CD?

Labyrinth is my favorite recording that I’ve ever been a part of. with “Where is the Internet” and “Psalm to the Silent God” being two of my favorite songs. Fred Bogert’s production is outstanding, perfect for the sound. We’re looking forward to working with him again

Are you working on another recording?

It’s called ‘Binary Stars’ and I’m really excited about it. So far we have 11 tunes in various states of composed, a lot more uke songs, and a great many more with vocals. I think there’ll be 3 instrumentals in the end, with one of those having a single lyric. Most of the songs are love songs, odd, longing, love songs. We’re trying to make it feel more like an album than Labyrinth. There are recurring themes in lyrics and music; it should be ride from start to stop. Like I said, I’m excited about it.

Thanks for chatting with me Nathaniel.  Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Looking forward to playing Bowling Green again.

We are also looking forward to having you again sometime soon. If you want to check out Aby Laby Land go to their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/abylabyland.

Jack Montgomery is a librarian, author and associate professor at Western Kentucky University where he handles bookings for musical acts in University Libraries, Java City coffeehouse. Jack has also been a professional musician since 1969 and performs with a local folk duet called “Shadowdancer” with Graham Hudspeth.