This Friday, May 20, the Bearsville Theater is featuring a live performance by the Refugee All Stars, an eight-member band from Sierra Leone. The upbeat sound of the All Stars, a rich bouillabaisse of Afro-pop, roots reggae and traditional West African goombay, belies the horrors that band members experienced during the civil war that wracked their country. Discovered by filmmakers in a refugee camp in Guinea and catapulted to international fame by the film that bore their name, the multi-generational band responded to the atrocities of the war and their experience of forced exile with a positive, transformative message.

“They speak to the troubles,” noted Simeon Chapin, a publicist at Cumbancha, the Vermont-based record label that released the band’s critically acclaimed second CD, Rise and Shine, last year. “One of their songs contains the proverb that when two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers, which means when two warlords fight, it’s the people who suffer,” he said. “But Rise and Shine talks a lot about rolling with it – of being positive despite the troubles in the world. From their experience as refugees, they address the suffering in the world and how to move past it – how not to let the difficulties get you down.”

Chapin said that all the band members, with the exception of rapper and percussionist Black Nature, who lives in San Francisco, have returned to Sierra Leone. Although they’ve toured extensively in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia, the Bearsville Theater performance marks the Refugee All Stars’ debut in the mid-Hudson Valley. Acclaimed by the press for its “plaintive harmony vocals and exuberant dance grooves” (Chicago Tribune), the group incorporates “a lot of the elements of jam bands,” said Chapin. “They really go far and bring the audience to a lot of peaks and valleys. They’re some of the most uplifting musicians you’ll ever find.”

The show starts at 9 p.m.; doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit www.bearsvilletheater.com.