Aerosmith guitarist backing gig by African musicians

Thanks to Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry, a group of West African musicians known as the Refugee All Stars has a place to play on Friday (June 30th). Perry told us that it all started over the winter in Woodstock, Vermont, when he and his wife saw a documentary about the group: "We saw this film about this band called the Refugee All Stars, who through the trials and tribulations - and tribulations being a euphemism for some of the most horrendous conditions you can imagine -- managed to have a band while they were actually living in a refugee camp. They had some dates open, and they needed a sponsor to get up and play in Woodstock, and my wife and I just said, 'How much will it be?' They told us, and we wrote the check."

The Refugee All Stars are a group of musicians from Sierra Leone who, like many of their countrymen, wound up in refugee camps in neighboring Guinea because of the civil war that raged for more than 10 years.

Thanks to the Perrys, the film The Refugee All Stars will be shown again in Woodstock on Thursday, June 29th, and the band will perform Friday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the town. Perry hasn't met the group yet, but he plans to be at the gig.

For more information about the band and the documentary, go to refugeeallstars.org.