Musical Ideas

By Sharmila Vedantha


In my earlier post, I had described Sanjo The Balladeer as “a thinker, an artiste and a creative personality” – prompting some readers (and my Editor) to ask: Why “Thinker”? They got the reference to the artiste and (having read his evocative lyrics) the reference to Sanjo being a creative personality; but they were stumped by the "Thinker" tag.

And yet it is that very word which comprehensively defines the man and his music. Sanjo isn’t one of those regular artistes who goes up on stage and performs a set list of unrelated songs. Every show is a concept… an idea. Every show has a clear theme running through it. And more often than not, there is a strong message emanating from each show.

Sanjo has an extremely popular show titled ‘The Songs of The Balladeer’ and it comprises a mix of music and storytelling; the stories are about the songs, the artistes and about behind-the-scenes trivia about the songs. The format is highly interactive with a lot of audience participation. The show encompasses themes ranging from love, dating and the battle-of-the- sexes (the show is called ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’) to the more thought-provoking ‘The Power of Protest Songs’.

‘The Songs of The Balladeer’ shows started sometime in the winter of the year 2000 and continued for around five years till Sanjo took a break to work on his first album (Barson Huey); The shows resumed from early 2005 and continue till date. Here’s an early poster from around that time.

Many of Sanjo’s shows have a strong social message – like ‘The Power of Protest Songs’ which takes the audience deeper into the use of music as a weapon for raising one’s voice against injustice, violence, prejudice and inequity.

One of the causes very close to Sanjo’s heart is the environment. It forms a very important part of ‘The Songs of The Balladeer’. In fact, Sanjo has a show dedicated to Earth Day – titled ‘Earth Eulogy’, the show is a loving tribute to Mother Earth and the urgent need to stop the wanton destruction of ecologically important areas.

“This enormous variety in the ideas that Sanjo comes up with acts as a huge differentiator in the entertainment space” says Sashi of Livenergi, who manages Sanjo and his shows. “A lot of the audience interest and media attention that we have received has been because of how novel and innovative his ideas are.”

Mukul Easwaran who managed Sanjo during the early years of ‘The Songs of The Balladeer’ says: “The diversity of Sanjo’s ideas enabled us to go back to the same audience time and time again – each time with a refreshingly different show. One week it would be sombre and serious, the next week would be fun-filled and tongue-in-cheek. The audience loved it!”