BABAM! - the Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians - is a cross-band group (and open to people not with any band) to rally for events and causes in the Boston area and beyond - sometimes to enjoy the power of a massed group, sometimes to pull together a viable group at the last minute. The repertoire is simple, horn-friendly well-known stuff in the HONK! tradition.

How to Participate

To join in the fun, sign up for a free account on The Gig-O-Matic, the HONK! community's favorite gig organizing tool. (Once you sign up, click on your name in the top right, then "My Profile", then "Add Band", then "Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians". You can then receive notification of upcoming BABAM! gigs, and propose and manage new ones!)

You can also see photos and updates on our Facebook page.

Our Music

We try to find songs that many HONK! musicians know, and lean towards horn-friendly keys such as Bb, Eb, and F.

• This Little Light Of Mine (Bb)
• Down by the Riverside (Bb)
• Mercy Mercy Mercy (Bb)
• This Land is Your Land (F)
• We Got That Fire (Eb)
• Bella Ciao (F/Dm)
• Chameleon
• Watermelon Man (F) Possibly these,
• When the Saints Go Marching In (F)
• Second Line (Bb)
• Let the Sunshine In (A) (Just the last couple of bars: Am, E7, E7, Am, F, C, and repeat)

We will be looking to get charts here soon, for now many of them are written out at the music pages of our friends at JP Honk and School of Honk.

Other songs we may try include Pete-Seeger-style sing-alongs: key to be decided on the spot, or default to Bb (Which Side Are You On?, We Shall Overcome, We Shall Not be Moved, If I Had A Hammer, Turn! Turn! Turn!)