The Nanga Deff Song was a greeting song that had a verse for everybody in the audience. Often I arrived at a village or compound, a stranger and a white stranger who didn't speak much Wolof or indeed much French. I had my guitar with me and after an initial shyness the children would soon gather round and ask me to sing a song. Soon the older villagers would come too and sometimes the only chair in the village might be produced and I'd do this song beginning with a name I knew
e.g. Abdou, Nanga Deff
Abdou, Salamalocum
Abdou, ca va
Abdou Djiarra Djiuff
Abdou Djia Djia fte

This all means; Abdou How's it goin' in Wolof, Arabic and French to which Abdou would respond "grand" in the same language and the last two lines say "thank you" and "thanks a million"

The music for the nanga deff song was entirely blues chords contrasting with a happy rhythm. I found Africa so full of contrasts and this was deliberate. Back in Ireland I had nowhere to sing this song and so I gave it some new words and country middle bit and it became;

Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard

Now don't you ask me when I'm gonna slow down
Start actin' my age, stop actin' the clown
Wearin' loud clothes, wearin' out my cars
A kinda winsome, lonesome worn out bard
thats Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard

runnin' round the place on some kinda quest
not lookin' too bad but not lookin' my best
can't choose one when there's the rest
I'm Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard
Yeah I'm Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard

Like an old time cowboy ridin' on the range
I'm movin' on when I feel like a change
Tryin' to get a sense of what life's all about
Could spend ten lifetimes tryin' to figure out
And Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard

So if it's hopes you're hangin' please don't hang them on me
Or if it's something like starting a family
Take another look and pretty soon you'll see
That I'm Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard
Yeah I'm Lookin' for a woman-but not lookin' too hard