Richmond, Va.-based salsa band Bio Ritmo has been playing a unique blend of Latin music for 17 years.

The band has toured across the United States and Puerto Rico, won independent music awards and has shared stages with bands like Wilco and G. Love & Special Sauce.

Now if they could only get across the Canadian border.

The band has three Canadian shows planned in the three days before they are set to play at 123 Pleasant St., but right now, some faulty paperwork stands between them and Ontario.

“Right now we’re trying to discern whether or not we’re going to be allowed into Canada,” said band member Justin Ruccio in a phone interview. “It doesn’t look good at the moment.”

Regardless of the band’s international travel issues, fans in Morgantown will get to experience Bio Ritmo’s distinctive brand of salsa music this Saturday at 123.

The beginning stages of Bio Ritmo were, like the band’s music, a little quirky.

The first incarnation of the band that would become Bio Ritmo began playing music together 17 years ago as a drummers’ collective.

It played an event for a local Richmond science museum that employed Bio Ritmo co-founder Jorge Negron, who now resides in Puerto Rico.

The museum was doing an exhibition about the Caribbean Islands and wanted a Caribbean-themed rhythm section.

Ruccio, who now plays timbal (a Brazillian type of drum) in the band, was in the audience of that show. He joined the band a year later. Ruccio said that some of the band’s members were at first novices in salsa music.

“None of us came from a traditional Latin music background,” Ruccio said, noting that Bio Ritmo’s members have backgrounds in punk, jazz and alternative music.

The band grew to love salsa music, partly through Negron’s extensive Latin music record collection. Bio Ritmo soon developed its own brand of salsa music, which is inspired by various musical genres including afro-pop, jazz, rock and disco.

“It’s all there,” Ruccio said. “We have no limitations.”

In September, Bio Ritmo released its latest album, Bionico. They enlisted the help of Jon Fausty, an 18-time Grammy winning salsa producer.

Fausty helped define the sound of salsa music in the ’60s and ’70s.

Ruccio said that the eight-piece band’s sound has come full circle with the release of Bionico, noting that some of the band’s earlier dalliances with more mainstream music were unsuccessful.

“The best thing I can say about (Bionico) is that it’s a culmination of a stylistic shift we’ve been experimenting with for six or seven years. We’re trying to go back to the sounds that inspired us in the beginning,” Ruccio said. “We want to expand the boundaries of what people think of as ‘salsa,’ in a humble way.”

This Saturday will be the band’s fourth time performing at 123 Pleasant St. Ruccio said that 123 crowds have been good to the band in the past.

“We’ve always had a lot of fun playing Pleasant St.,” Ruccio said. We always encourage dancing. It’s a party.”

Saturday’s show at 123 Pleasant St. will begin at 10 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, and tickets will also be available at the door.

For more information about Bio Ritmo, go to www.myspace.com/bioritmo or www.bioritmo.com. For more information about tickets to Saturday’s show, visit www.123pleasantstreet.com.

By: Stephanie Stanton