Honduras 2010
In 2010, the band returned to Central America, this time visiting Honduras. The video features the boys participating in town festival, completing daredevil feats, communing with nature, and, of course, sharing music with the locals.
Belize/Guatemala, 2009
In January and February, 2009, HSB toured through Belize and Guatemala. We played for ex-pats on Caye Caulker, college kids in San Ignacio, and locals and fellow travelers in bus stations, on piers, and in town squares. Among the musical highlights were playing for the gods in total darkness at Cahal Pech and playing for Maximón de Santiago, a bona fide Mayan saint. (Someone should write a song.)
We often found locals eager to share their own songs and tossing with us, so here’s a shout-out to Uncs at the water taxi pier in Belize City and to Emmanuel Saguic, a coffee farmer in San Pablo del Lago in Guatemala.
Maximon
While touring Guatemala, the Harley String Band sought an audience with the authentic, living Mayan god, Maximón, who may appear to the untrained eye to be a wooden dummy smoking a cigarette. Unexpectedly, the band was allowed to play a couple of songs for Maximón, and he did not appear to object. (See the video at left) Steve Coffee and Jim Johnson later wrote a song in attempt to assimilate the strange experience and to honor the renegade saint who somehow survived the conquest.
Find "Maximón" on the band's new album, Earthly Pursuits.