Get ready to sing, laugh and ride your imagination around the world as silly songs, resonant rubbish and tall tales of fun folk music by Kelly Armor and Dave Sturtevant head your way.

Armor and Sturtevant comprise a duo of folk-playing, story-telling talent that has been touring the country for five years. The pair entertains audiences with a mix of East African traditional and American old-time music topped off with an original variety of unusual instruments.

Some of the instruments are even made of trash. The most interesting of these is possibly the “bladder back,” which combines a tennis racket, balloon and fishing line.

Both artists come to Ames with many credentials. Armor studied the flute and musical composition at Yale University and has spent two and a half years in Kenya and Tanzania living with the natives, learning their music and collecting their instruments.

“African-American music has a different center to it,” Armor said. “Where as the [common] ballad is more introverted, African music is more extroverted. [It] forces us to [work more] on rhythm.”

Sturtevant spent his childhood listening to and accompanying the fiddle playing of his father, and was a finalist in the 1993 Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest.

Armor and Sturtevant met after Armor returned from Africa and found that they were both looking to find something more in their music. The contrast in styles between folk and African proved to be an exciting challenge for them.

“I’m good at coming up with concepts, while [Dave] is good at the language and poetry writing,” Armor said.

The band’s unique combination of African-influenced flute and straightaway folk draws much critical praise.

“The duo plays an eclectic set, reflecting the breadth of their combined roots. But their finest moments come when their influences combine,” a critic from the Rochester, N.Y., paper said.

“This pair demonstrates a feeling for the commonality of human culture and a profound respect for each other.”

In addition to folk music, Armor and Sturtevant tell humorous folk tales to break up the monotony of a musical concert.

Armor and Sturtevant will begin performing Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 1015 North Hyland Ave.