WobeonFest Slinger: Vieux Farka Toure

North African blues from Mali entered Stateside consciousness in 1994 when Ry Cooder and the region’s Ali Farka Toure staged a guitar summit on Talking Timbuktu for the same label that brought the world the Buena Vista Social Club two years later. Vieux Farka Toure takes up his late father’s six-string hypnotics Saturday as a headliner at WobeonFest.

Also loading into Ironwood Hall (505 E. Seventh) for Austin’s third annual world music convergence, Panamanian fusion drummer Billy Cobham, 71, best known for his work in the Seventies with Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Previously, one had to travel far and wide to witness either Toure, but the younger’s first performance locally is sure to redefine guitar for more than one local slinger. Vieux’s stinging entrancement needs no translation, and neither did he once he got on the phone to speak on a subject his translator said he rarely talks about – his father.

Austin Chronicle: You father taught you guitar?

Vieux Farka Toure: Bien sur. [Of course.]

AC: Tell me about your first guitar lesson.

VFT: That first time, he just showed me one song. Lake Débo is between Niafunké and Mopti. We used to take the boat from Niafunké to come to Mopti, and it’s a very big lake. We just played together in the boat. That was one of the first times he said, “I’m going to show you something. It’s like this.” The first song he showed me is called “Tara.”

AC: He was a musician, and you as well, obviously. Is your family a line of musicians?

VFT: Right, he’s one, and I’m one – to play music. Nobody in the family is a musician. My grandfather was a soldier. Normally they don’t accept musicians, but it’s life, so if you have to be something.

AC: Did they come to embrace your father being a musician?

VFT: It was very difficult for him, and me too, because my father didn’t want me to be a musician. You don’t have any guarantees. Sometimes it’s working, sometimes it’s not working, so you have to have another job.

AC: Do you have kids?

VFT: I have three, but I wouldn’t want my kids to be musicians. Right now, it’s good [my career], but sometimes you don’t have anything. Music now is so difficult. I’ll tell them to do another job. If you have another job and do music, it works. But don’t be just a musician.

AC: You’re probably away from your family a lot.

VFT: Yeah.

AC: Same for your father?

VFT: When I was young, we’d only see my father every four months, every six months. When he came, it was for two or three days or something, and then he left again. It was difficult. For me, it’s the same. My kids ask me all the time, “Papi, where you are? When you come?”

But this time and that time aren’t the same. This time, you have Skype and cell phones and you speak to them all the time. You see them every day. It’s not as difficult as in my father’s time. He didn’t have Skype. He didn’t have anything. Very difficult, but now it’s okay.

AC: I’m sure you would’ve liked more time with him.

VFT: Bien sur, bien sur. It’s always good to have more time with your family, but you don’t have no choice. You have a job, so you have to do that so your family can eat.

AC: Do you think you made the right choice becoming a musician?

VFT: I think I made the right choice, yeah. I love music. I love to play. I love to make people happy. The good in this job is when you see people happy. When you know you’ve given people something, it’s very good. I’m very lucky to do this job, so I say [to myself] all the time, “Okay, it’s very hard, this job, and being away from your family all the time, but you give a very good time and make the people happy, so it’s good.”

AC: Texas is known for its guitarists – T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Familiar with any of them?

VFT: Stevie Ray Vaughan, I know his name.

AC: They often compared your father to John Lee Hooker.

VFT: Yeah, because I think my father listened to too much John Lee Hooker [laughs]. The music Hooker played is the same one we play in Mali. The same. That’s why. My father always said, “Blues music comes from [Mali].” I think he was right.

AC: Would you say your style’s similar to your father’s?

VFT: No, I don’t think they’re similar – how my father played and how I play. Because my father played like the original bluesmen, but now, for me, the mix is blues and rock & roll. We are young, so you have to create some new songs, some new styles. Your mission is to create and give something new to the people. You have to put your mark before your leave.

AC: Who are your influences on guitar?

VFT: Oof, I have many. Many, many, many, many. John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Carlos Santana, my father.

AC: Met any of your heroes?

VFT: No, but I love what they do.

AC: Favorite place to play in the States?

VFT: In New York we played in a church. It’s funny to play in a church. I tell this story: My family says, “You’re a musician,” and I say, “Yes, but I attend church” [laughs]. Sometimes, it’s not the big places, it’s the small places. It’s 50 people, and it’s like family. It’s good. This kind of concert you remember all your life. Most of the time the big places you play, for many people, it’s no good. But the little places, like the church, are very special. Or somewhere in the forest – the woods.

AC: Wish your father could have seen you at this juncture in your career?

VFT: If he was here now, we would play. I would go home and tell him, “Okay, you have to play this place.” When I go home, I speak with my mother and tell her the story of where we were and where we played. It’s like I used to speak with my father.