MON ROVIA/JOSIAH + THE BONNEVILLES
Mon Rovia/Josiah + The Bonnevilles, World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA. 3/29/24.
I couldn’t be more excited to see Josiah + The Bonnevilles with him being one of my favorite singers. Opening up the show was another artist I’m very fond of; Mon Rovia a Liberian folk artist who escaped from civil war to move to Tennessee. With a very peaceful sound to his voice he kept the audience wanting more with each song he played. When Josiah took the stage the crowd erupted in cheer as he led off with “Back to Tennessee” a hit that talks about his Tennessee roots. When someone from the crowd pointed out his belated birthday everyone started singing to him which made him burst out laughing and repeatedly thanked the crowd. While tuning his guitar Josiah told the audience a story of how his first ever record deal and how he never sees a royalties check for more than a few dollars, but the biggest one he ever got was for 6 dollars and that was his inspiration for the song six dollar check. Soon after he went into his row of covers and played Taylor Swift’s “Anti Hero”, Elle King’s “Jersey Giant”, and my favorite cover; Justin Bieber’s “Ghost”. Nearing the end of the show Josiah brought Mon Rovia back out to sing a song together, a surprise the Philly crowd loved. He thanked everybody for coming out to his show and walked off. Everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs for one more song so he came back out to play two more including the Glass Animals “Heat Waves”. With just one more song left in the night he knew Blood Moon was the perfect send off for the Philly crowd.
Shot and Written by Jonah van Bemmelen.
