johne

All nice Bulldog. Boubacar "Kar Kar" Traore, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate all come from the Mande influence that I wrote about. You can hear similarities with Keita especially in the guitar runs. Unlike Keita, though, all three are influenced by American blues in addition to Mande.

Tinariwen are from a different strain of Malian people--Tuareg rebels. Their music is much more "Arabic" influenced and political rather than the more mellow traditional Mande. Good stuff.

Here are some links:

Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabaté both have free listens on their myspace pages; both pages have some tracks with Toure and Diabate together:
Toure: http://www.myspace.com/alifarkatoureofficial
Diabate: http://www.myspace.com/toumanidiabate

Boubacar Traore
YouTube - Boubacar Traoré "KarKar"

Traore and Toure duet:
YouTube - Boubacar "Kar Kar" Traore & Ali Farka Toure

Tinariwen, myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/tinariwen

Tinariwen – Listen free and discover music at Last.fm

I wouldn't say ALL the good WA music comes from Mali; wait til you hear the Nigerians!!!

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