Porchlighters is a modern international folk band. We play original music inspired by a variety of folk styles from all over the world with strong Caribbean and Celtic influences. The band features Dyla Hernandez on vocal and ukelele, Osvaldo Cleger and Jan Uelzmann on the guitar, John Daniel on the drums and percussion, and Todd Skidmore on the bass.
It is obviously an international language and that is immensely valuable. Two folks who don't speak the same language but know how to play an instrument will be able to start a "conversation" immediately despite not having much more in common. Music also opens a window into people and communities emotions and their individual or collective psyche. It allows you to feel immediately how someone or a whole culture "vibrates". The artifacts we use to create music (instruments and even everyday objects, labor tools, etc.) have also a very strong evocative power that can allow you to recreate the emotions experienced by cultures and people who may even be dead. We own a King David's Lyre, considered to be one of the most ancient instruments still in existence, and whenever we touch it or play it we feel transported in time. How cool is that? Music and sound offer one of the best ways to feel connected with the rest of the world throughout our whole lives. Music calmed us down and put us to sleep when we were in our mother's arms. Hopefully a grand concert or another motherly soothing melody will be played when we are about to rest our eyes.