Discussion Forums - International

Banning Eyre, who hosts the "Afro-Pop Worldwide" website, also reviews music for NPR.  I've ordered lots of CDs after hearing his reviews, but none so urgently as for the band, Tinariwen from Mali.  This revolving group of nomads proves that the origins of the blues is Western Africa, and as a friend has insisted to me, from Mali specifically.  Tinariwen play the deepest, blackest blues to be found anywhere.  The seem to do so with little effort, and with little rehearsal, but that could be only what we the public hear and see.  The CD "Imi Diwan" comes with a DVD that you'll want to play several times, as you watch the band members arrive by pickup, and even camel, to play what looks like an impromptu gig in the middle of the dessert, all plugged into generators.  They're all blue robes and bluer eyes, very mysterious.  It's clear that they've heard their Jimi Hendricks, and maybe some John Lee Hooker, but the sound they get is all their own.