Recent Grammy Award Winners Tank and the Bangas are bringing their poetic prowess to the Wooly’s stage on April 4.
Hailing from New Orleans, Tarriona “Tank” Ball and Norman Spence make up Tank and the Bangas. They are a “genre-fluid” music group who have performed at everything from jazz festivals to tiny desk concerts. The group was even the 2017 winner of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest for their song “Quick.”
But nothing beats taking their show on the road.
“I feel as though it’s more intimate and you just hear words more,” Ball said. “But it still has the vibrancy and the electric fun of a Tank and the Bangas show.”
And Ball loves doing it.
“I just get to take my time and share my first love with everyone, which is poetry, and I just always wanted to do it,” Pall said. “My label probably calls it my passion project, but my passion project are the Grammys. So I’m very excited to follow my passions, because they lead me exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
The band has been described as a “lively fusion of funk, soul, hip hop, rock, and spoken word” by The Washingtonian’s Heather Rudow in 2016. “The 10-person ensemble, fronted by poet [Bell], won New Orleans magazine Off-Beat’s ‘Emerging Artist of the Year’ in 2014.”
The group have released three studio albums, “Thinktank” (2013), “Green Balloon” (2019), and “Red Balloon” (2022). In 2025, they won their first Grammy for the 2024 album, “The Heart, The Mind, The Soul” for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album at this year’s awards ceremony; an award that has only been given out since 2023 and, for the last two years, had been awarded to artist J. Ivy.
Pall said. “It’s pretty incredible. And I know that someone’s looking at it, they’re like ‘me next.’ I come from a lot of amazing poets and poetry, so I know that it just inspires them and puts fire underneath them to know that they can do it too, just like I did.”
Ball was nearly speechless when giving her acceptance speech, but she did note, excitedly, that they were playing a Stevie Wonder song when her and Spence took the stage.
“My dad loves Stevie Wonder,” Ball said “That just did something to me. It let me know that everything was just already written out for us. And I thought that was pretty special, because every other song was like [grandiose] but when I came up there, like, what? Steve Wonder? This is meant, this is in the stars.”
“The Heart, The Mind, The Soul” was “officially” released on August 30, 2024, and features 11 (or 12, if you have a physical/deluxe copy) tracks. The album features poems from Ball and are selections from working with producer notables James Poyser, Robert Glasper, Iman Omari, Brian London and Austin Brown.
It was released in three increments; first “The Heart,” then “The Mind” and then “The Soul.”
“The Heart” was released in July 2024, made with production by James Poyser. It features four of the 11 songs, “A Poem Is (feat. Jill Scott),” “Enjoy The Ride,” “Open to Thyself” and “Ghetto Earth.”
“The Mind” came a month later in early August, featuring three tracks made with Iman Omari. The tracks are “They Don’t See/Whole Foods (feat. Aja Monet),” “Starting Over” and “Little Things (feat. Yaya Bey).”
The third component is “The Soul,” produced by and featuring contemporary jazz keyboardist Robert Glasper. These songs weren’t given a separate release and bring up the rear of the album, but also piece it together. “Remember (feat. Samara Joy, Robert Glasper)” was released as a single, but the other three weave between the previous releases. “Who Ha? (feat. J. Ivy),” “You’re in Way Over Your Head (feat. Robert Glasper)” and “Am I Still New Orleans (feat. Robert Glasper)” fill out the album to Ball’s full vision.
Ball said of the production that they were, “just being incredibly intentional about the producers, about it being released in a three part series, about how many songs will be on it, how short the videos will be. Just grabbing people’s attention and keeping them invested for the long run of the rollout. And I think that it was really beautiful and very purposeful, and I love what it did. It made all the fans really excited about what was next, and that’s that’s what the intention was, because the attention spans are so short, so to keep everybody engaged, especially with something like poetry, it’s important.”
Fans connected with Ball’s poetry and streaming apps noticed. Spotify featured the album on a Times Square billboard and they and other music platforms added some tracks on their featured playlists of “Slow Dancing” (Apple Music), “Soul Coffee” (Spotify), “Soul Revival” (Apple Music), “PRSM” (Amazon Music) and more.
“It’s been in the works in the mind, for a couple of years,” Ball said. “But as far as to get her done, I feel like it took a couple of months, which is probably the shortest that we’ve ever done any project.”
As a spoken word album, Ball felt that it was easier than their previous ones, “in that sense that it’s just a little more organic, more natural. I felt like I just had a straight lead, especially since it was mostly poetry. So just felt like I was able to lead the shift a little more on that one, and really working with some of my favorite producers and Norman’s favorite producers as well. Like James Porter and Iman Omari, and taking time out Robert Glasper and getting Jill Scott on it, and Samara joy, just working with everyone I wanted to work with. And it just was, it was really cool.”
Tank and the Bangas will take the stage on Friday, April 4, at Wooly’s, 504 E Locust St. in Des Moines, Iowa. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the show to start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 general admission and available at firstfleetconcerts.com
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