Betel Nuts Brothers take to the road and preach Aboriginal blues

You may have heard of betel nut girls, but you may not have heard of Betel Nuts Brothers (檳榔兄弟). The girls sit in transparent boxes beside highways, but the Brothers are a blues and folk band.

The band is now gearing up for a one-month, eight-city tour of Taiwan and the first date is tomorrow in the square at Shisanhang Museum of Archeology in Pali, Taipei County, 1:30pm. The tour ends in Taitung, Jan. 10, in the square at the National Museum of Prehistory.

The Brothers are another Aboriginal band of the Amis tribe -- though they prefer to be called Pangcah people -- but they are not another Power Station, nor is their style similar to pop diva A-mei.

Musically, acoustic guitars, conga drums and Amis wooden and bamboo drums form the backbone of the the band's music, added to the Brothers' unadorned voices, often in call-and-response segments, sometimes with funny lyrics.

Huegu and Docdoc are the two key figures in Betel Nuts Brothers. They are cousins who grew up playing baseball together in a village in Hualien. Docdoc now work as a surgeon at a Hualien hospital and Huegu is a truck driver, who sometimes takes up temporary jobs as a construction worker. After work, they play guitar and percussion instruments to recount their youthful days.

Three years ago, the brothers released their first album Bura Bura Yan, a grass blues album, based on traditional Amis folk songs and mixed with blues arrangements. Their new album, Hunters Who Lost Their Lands (失守獵人), released this month, continues in an acoustic vein but gathers more musicians and is more ambitious. Huegu invites his twin brother Abi, younger brother Budu and older brother Wushin to join the band, each bringing their own tunes and music instruments.

Presenting true Amis life in their songs is a primary feature in Betel Nut Brothers' songs. Hunters Who Lost Their Lands, a song presenting the ironic fact that Aboriginal people are forbidden to hunt in their ancestral lands, is a protest song with a calm spirit and blues beat.

Apart from a few love songs, the album has preserved and re-created new styles for old Amis folk songs, such as a song about hunting human heads and a war song for Amis fighters. There is also an X-rated song about young farmers having sex in the rice fields during harvest time. Admission to all concerts are free. For the tour schedule see: www.treesmusic.com.