Poko Lambro's Anthony Garcia and Violet Lea brought their sound to Busan back in 2009. Now they are packing it up and heading back to the states to pursue their music on home ground. This Saturday will be their farewell show to Busan along with some of the city's best musicians at the Vinyl Underground. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing the couple together on stage, don't miss it.

BUSAN, South Korea -- One Wednesday in March 2009, I walked into Ol’55 Tavern for Mike Edmunds’ open mic music night. He told me there was a new couple in town named Anthony and Violet who were going to play. Great! I thought, new blood. When it was their turn to play, I sat down in the corner of the bar and watched them set up. 

Before they played a single note, it was obvious that these two were different. They were gracious and confident and they handled their instruments like pros – they were at home on the stage. And then they played, and my jaw fell to the floor. Within 90 seconds of hearing them play, two distinct thoughts entered my brain. First, this changes everything. Second, I will play with these two.

Both came true. They changed the music scene in Busan, and not only do I play with them often, but they have become two of my best friends. So why am I the one writing this article? I don’t know. Bobby asked me to and I said yes. You see, Poko Lambro, Anthony Garcia and Violet Lea, are leaving next Monday to go back to Texas. And I’m very pissed off about it. But the least I can do for them, for all they’ve given me, is send them off with a document of how they came, how they affected our close-knit community of expats, and what lies ahead.

Anthony and Violet met at Acuff Studios near Lubbock, Texas in 2007. Violet was recording her own songs and Anthony arrived to pick up his finished album. It was the seed of a relationship that developed over subsequent chance encounters in the Lubbock music scene. 

“I was really interested in him as a songwriter,” Violet says. “I was new to it and I wanted to know what that process was like for him.”

One day, the two were sitting at a cafe and Anthony said he had to leave for a gig. “I just said ‘You wanna play with me tonight?’”

That gig marked the beginning of their performing relationship which eventually evolved into a personal one. Early on, they were billed simply as “Anthony Garcia.” At the time, Anthony was already an established performer. 

“He would get up and play for an hour. Then he would invite me up for like three songs. That was how it started, but it grew from there. We didn’t really become Poko Lambro until we came to Korea,” recalls Violet. 

They came to Korea needing a change. “We were going through a miserable time,” Violet says. “He was depressed and moody and we were having big problems. We were waiting in line to get into the Grand Canyon and he turned to me and said ‘I’m sorry, for my sanity, we have to go abroad.’”

Violet agreed to go “because I loved him. I was going to do what he wanted.” The decision was made right then, but it brought one major concern: they worried they would not have the chance to perform in public. Their worries disappeared when they met O’Brien’s owner Andrew Tennent. 

Read the rest of this article at BusanHaps.com

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