Trumpeter Frank London has noticed a disturbing trend while touring with his popular New York City-based ensemble, The Klezmatics.
"Depending on where we go, people are either feeling the hard economic times in a real way or they are afraid of it," London said by phone in an interview last week from Washington. "Promoters aren't sure if people are going to come out. This is the world we are living in now. People don't know if they are allowed to go out and have a good time. It is a little bit strange."
London said the klezmer fusion band, coming through Centennial Hall on Saturday, knows its role these days. They won't be able to save your house, but "as musicians we can sing songs that relate to the struggles people are going through."
That includes tunes that revolve around consolation, activism and celebration, London said, "so people aren't only down in the dumps over things."
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He added that the Klezmatics have always made a conscious effort to record songs, whether they be traditional or original, that relate to the world they are living in.
The band's first album for example, "Shvaygn = Toyt" in Yiddish or "Silence = Death" in English, was recorded in the 1980s during the the AIDS epidemic in New York City. "Silence = Death" was a slogan coined by the AIDS activist group Act Up, which protested the lack of open discussion about safe sex and government inaction.
"We found old Yiddish songs that reflected our political activism," London said of the group's beginnings. "Our main theme song, even now, 'Ale Brider,' says that we are all brothers and sisters. If we work together, we can make the world a better place."
Today, the band finds the current economic situation can best be expressed through the songs of the iconic folk singer Woody Guthrie.
The Klezmatics were invited by Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, a few years back to choose some of Woody's unrecorded lyrics and put them down on a CD. The collaboration resulted in two albums, "Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah" and "Wonder Wheel," which won the band a Grammy Award in 2007.
The recordings were released before the economic downturn, but Guthrie's work is synonymous with the Dust Bowl era and the Great Depression. London found the projects fitting for this day and age.
"Using his words was a natural thing," London said. "He was always reacting to the world around him. I think that makes us, not happy, but certainly prepared that we are in tough times now."
The band is currently touring with "Tuml = Lebn," ("Noise = Life"), a retrospective of the Klezmatics' 20-plus years in the music industry. London said as the group looks toward a brighter future, it hopes to have a concert DVD as well as a documentary about the band out by the end of the year.
"It has been an amazing trip," London said. "The question always comes up, 'Who are we going to meet next and what road is that going to take us down?'"
If you go
The Klezmatics in concert
• Presented by: UApresents.
• When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.
• Tickets: $17-$40 through the Centennial Hall box office, 621-3341.
