Tag Archives: world music

A Rough Guides omnibus review: Afro-Cuba, Lucky Dube, Nigeria & Ghana, and Haiti

Various artists’ The Rough Guide to Afro-Cuba Lucky Dube’s The Rough Guide to Lucky Dube Various artists’ The Rough Guide to the Music of Nigeria & Ghana Various artists’ The Rough Guide to the Music of Haiti Jennifer Byrne wrote … Continue reading

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Various artists’ The Rough Guides to the Music of Africa, and to Congolese Soukous

Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. I’m thoroughly convinced that no one is entirely sure how many musical genres are floating around Africa right now. These two Rough Guides give a quick glance at some of the music of the … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Arabic Grooves: Rebel Music of Algeria: The Rough Guide to Raï

Raï is a music that took shape in Algeria – more particularly in the western cities of Relizane, Sidi Bel Abbès and above all the seaport of Oran – whence it found its way all over North Africa and thence … Continue reading

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Medicine Singers’ Medicine Singers

The Medicine Singers’ self-titled debut release is yet another mind-blowing musical project out of Indian Country. This year of 2022 seems to be the year for them! Although this one includes some guest vocals from Joe Rainey, a Red Lake … Continue reading

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Noori & His Dorpa Band’s Beja Power!

The album begins with a guitar line reminiscent of the great Ali Farka Touré, and with its simple tabla-like percussion hints you could be listening to another Malian desert blues band. But then the horn kicks in, a saxophone blowing … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Folk and Great Tunes From Siberia and Far East

Folk and Great Tunes From Siberia and Far East is a double CD by various artists from many of the remote Russian republics in Siberia and the Far East. Each of the two discs contains well over an hour of … Continue reading

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Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg’s Saints & Tzadiks

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. The German-Jewish poet Berthold Auerbach said “Music is a universal language, and needs not be translated. With it soul speaks to soul.” Perhaps Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg had that in mind when they recorded … Continue reading

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Susan McKeown’s Bushes & Briars

Meredith Tarr wrote this review. Susan McKeown has the pedigree to produce an album of traditional Irish songs. Reared in Dublin, the daughter of a musical mother, her own musical path took her briefly toward opera, veering off through jazz, … Continue reading

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Mike Scott’s Adventures of a Waterboy

The moment I opened this book about Mike Scott and started reading it was when I first realized that it was a memoir. And if you’ve read many musicians’ autobiographies, you’ll know why my heart sank. “Oh, great, another slog … Continue reading

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Warsaw Village Band’s Uprooting

Warsaw Village Band burst onto the world music scene when their album People’s Spring was released internationally in early 2004. This young Polish group set out to combine a deep respect for the fiddle traditions of their homeland with a … Continue reading

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