Savane, by Ali Farka Toure. Super interesting guitar. Hypnotic and loopy riffs that wander around and back to a repetitive (in the best way) core. cgod might like this but knowing him he has probably already heard it years ago :P Touré was approaching the age of 50 when he came to the attention of the burgeoning world music community in the West via a self-titled album in the late '80s. In the following years he toured often in North America and Europe, and recorded frequently, sometimes with contributions from Taj Mahal and members of the Chieftains. In 1990, Touré retreated from music entirely to devote himself to his rice farm, but was convinced by his producer to again pick up the guitar to record 1994's Talking Timbuktu, on which he was joined by Ry Cooder. It was his most well-received effort to date, earning him a Grammy for Best World Music Album, but it was also proof that not all Third World-First World collaborations have to dilute their non-Western elements to achieve wide acceptance. However, Touré found the success to be draining and again retreated to tend his farm."One of the most internationally successful West African musicians of the '90s, Ali Farka Touré was described as "the African John Lee Hooker" so many times that it probably began to grate on both Touré's and Hooker's nerves. There is a lot of truth to the comparison, however, and it isn't exactly an insult. The guitarist, who also played other instruments such as calabash and bongos, shared with Hooker (and similar American bluesmen like Lightnin' Hopkins) a predilection for low-pitched vocals and midtempo, foot-stomping rhythms, often playing with minimal accompaniment.
I don't own much Ali Farka Touré but the stuff I have is great. There is this other famous African guitarist that I've been listening to at work and I just can't get his name out of my head. It's on my iTunes but I can't find it. Pretty sure you will dig it if I can dig it out. You should listen to the festival in the Desert compilation has a bunch of people in that genera on it including Ali. I know how yellow you are when it comes to downloading music links off the net but if this is what it says it is you should hear it. Super gentle and beautiful African guitar with great vocal harmonies. http://www.mediafire.com/download/hpcozit2b9x2c1b/CapitalMusicStoreNairobi-12oftheBest.zip Maybe you can find it on one of your fancy new fangled music streaming services, it's called Capital Music Store Nairobi: 12 of the Best. I really love it, it's not bad assed like Ali but it's so lovely. I'd be surprised if anyone is hoping to infect your computerz with old obscure gentle African guitar jams. You can't go wrong with Thomas Mapfumo Other African Jams I've been digging. I'm sure I've posted this before https://sahelsounds.bandcamp.com/track/hamadth-kah-ce-weeti play this track at 1:28:00 or so for the super jam. Playing some highlife stuff from Ghana and surrounding countries as well. I've got like 80 hours a week to play albums right now.
I KNEW you would be familiar. Dude all the scams are from the KENYAN princes!! Those others you posted are good I'm going to add them to my playlist with AliI don't own much Ali Farka Touré but the stuff I have is great.
I'd be surprised if anyone is hoping to infect your computerz with old obscure gentle African guitar jams.
I found a bunch of good stuff from the classical music thread and have been going through my library lately for interesting songs with pianos in it. Nothing specific, I'm just bummed out that I don't actually have many songs in pianos in it. Pianos for dayz.
I had a coworker (a 60 year old guy, nonetheless) turn me onto a newish (Edit: Okay apparently not new, they've been around 14 years) folk rock band, Lumineers. I'd never heard of them before, but they're pretty good. I just started listening to their stuff so I don't have any particular songs to recommend. Aside from that, a reddit post turned me onto a band called Mutemath. Not sure what it qualifies as, almost synth rock or something? Stare at the sun is pretty great, but I love everything I've heard so far. Other than that, I'm still stuck in the classic rock era obsessed with kansas and boston and journey and styx. At least they've got those fun high notes to sing. Too bad I have zero confidence in my singing voice :(
I spent the weekend playing MMO's and listening to the entire Talking Heads discography. Here they are in their prime, Live TH were one of the very few metal bands back in the day what grabbed me enough to get me to buy their music.
Mixed feelings here - Princess Chelsea is something of an acquired taste, I guess; I'm not usually a fan of her stuff, but this Elvis cover is growing on me, after hearing it a few times.
I've been listening to a really great, folky, Portuguese band called Madredeus. "Lisboa, Rainha Do Mar" is the first song I heard by them. "Oxalá" is great too.
I am not really into it, but I stumbled across this vid a couple of days ago. It is one of my great friends from high school, one of the whitest people imaginable, singing a song in Mandarin. He has actually recorded a couple of albums in Mandarin, toured China and been on some tv shows there.