The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

[Safar]

All Gnawa music has a role to fulfill in the healing ritual called the “Lila” which means “Night” in Arabic. A “lila” can last for more than 12 hours, and is usually conducted in intimate gatherings, for the purpose of creating a safe place for people to get into a trance and be healed by the music. ..We normally like to include translation subtitles. But in this case, Toura Toura is untranslatable. It is sung in “Bambara" which, in Moroccan Gnawa culture, has evolved to be a mixture of several sub-Saharan African languages, but is presently spoken or understood by no-one.

Innov Gnawa - Toura Toura (Morocco/New York City)

The Jerusalem Orchestra East West is a multi-cultural orchestra comprising musicians from three religions, from all over the country and from all of Israel’s diverse groups.

TJOEW Feat. Mehdi Nassouli & Omri Mor – Bambra بامبره (Israel/Argentina/Morocco)

Spoiler for TJOEW Feat. Mehdi Nassouli & Omri Mor – Ayli Ouhiyani أيلي حياني:

[Safar]

Thomas Mapfumo, long known as the "Lion of Zimbabwe," invented the guitar-driven style he calls chimurenga while on the run during the independence wars of the ’70s. Ironically, he’s still in contention with his homeland—only now it’s with president Robert Mugabe and the other power brokers Mapfumo's work once helped to liberate. Both his music and his message remain relevant and enduring.

Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited - Nyoka Musango Live - African Crossroads 2020 (Zimbabwe)

Spoiler for Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks Unlimited - Ndangariro:

Lu Rusciu de lu Mare is another Tarantella! Originally this was a very slow ballad from Apullia, Italy. Later it transformed into a very fast traditional.

Cantistoria - Lu rusciu te lu mare (Italy)

[Safar]

Helsinki based electro-folk band Okra Playground was originally formed in 2010 from a shared wish to bring together excellent people and musicians to play around traditional Finnish music with a fresh approach.
The strong voices of the three female singers, as well as the age-old lyrics, simultaneously take the listener to far-off places and close to home.

Okra Playground - Turmio (Finland)

[Safar]

Ketevan "Katie" Melua Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა, born 16 September 1984, is a Georgian and British singer and songwriter. Melua was born in Kutaisi and raised in Belfast and London.

Katie Melua - Tu Ase Turpa Ikavi (Georgia/GB)

Kathleen MacInnes, or Caitlin NicAonghais in Scottish Gaelic, (born 30 December 1969) is a Scottish singer, who performs primarily in Scottish Gaelic. She is a native of South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and lives in Glasgow with her partner and three sons. In 2010, she appeared on the soundtrack to the Ridley Scott film Robin Hood.

Kathleen MacInnes - Òran na Cloiche ("Song of the Stone") [Stone of Scone] (Scotland)

Spoiler for Kathleen MacInnes with Sarah Jarosz - Gur Milis Morag:

[Safar]

Robert Ogilvie Noakes (13 May 1947 – 11 November 2022) was a Scottish singer-songwriter. Noakes was at the forefront of Scottish folk music for over 50 years and recorded over 19 studio albums. He toured folk clubs and often performed at the Glasgow music festival Celtic Connections.

Rab Noakes - I've Hardly Started Yet (Scotland)

Spoiler for Rab Noakes - Tennessee Waltz:

The Joy is a South African band, whose members met in a small town near Durban during a singing competition in high school. Encouraged by their teachers and classmates, the group mixes traditional Zulu music and acapella singing.

The Joy - Hlala Nami (South Africa)

On their 5th studio album, Connection, Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog have pushed their long-brewing tension between traditional pop songcraft and avantgarde improvisational music to the breaking point, bridging their customary genre-agnostic approach with elements of glam boogie, minimalist disco, psychedelic boogaloo, garage-punk-against-the-machine agitprop, and so much more.

Marc Ribot - Crumbia (USA)

[Safar]

Singer/songwriter Kelly Hunt’s new album, OZARK SYMPHONY, is the fruit of her many journeys. The songs tell universal stories of life’s peaks and valleys with stories set against a backdrop of the prairie, mountains, and river delta spanning the Midwest and deep South, all of which intimately shaped the contours of her life. Taken as a whole, the album establishes Hunt as a vital voice Americana music, ...

Kelly Hunt - Top of the World (USA)

Spoiler for Kelly Hunt - On the Bayou:

Spoiler for Kelly Hunt - Bittersweet Goodbye:

Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Elliott and Cairo-based oud virtuoso Elazhary and friends run the gamut from morris dance to classical Arabic traditions.

Tamsin Elliott & Tarek Elazhary - El Hara (GB/Egypt)

[Safar]

Composition of Campino.
"Written in October 2019 when we launched the regular trad session meetings at Café Comptoir Chez Colette in Tours. Inspired by compositions by Gilles Chabenat with whom I grew up, in particular his "Mazurka of the schoolchildren of Saint Genest".

Bonnin Campino Laplanche - Mazurka de Chez Colette (France)

Spoiler for Nicolas Campin - Lisière (valse):

[Safar]

André Le Meut, born December 4, 1964 in Ploemel, near Carnac, is a renowned Bombard player from Morbihan. He has been champion of Brittany several times, either as a couple or leading the Roñsed-Mor bagad from Locoal-Mendon (1993, 1999, 2003), as well as winner of the 2003 Kan Ar Bobl Grand Prix. Also a singer, he works at the "archives départementales du Morbihan" on the publication of traditional songs.

Philippe Bataille · André Le Meut - J'étais lassée d'être jeune fille (France)

Spoiler for Philippe Bataille · André Le Meut - En hani dilézet:

Spoiler for Philippe Bataille · André Le Meut - Dérobé de Guingamp:

2020 and the confined years that followed inspired them to bring medieval festivities into the heart of homes by offering unpretentious videos of polyphonic songs from the great notes of the medieval repertoire, such as standards popularized in their time by Malicorne, Mélusine or la Bamboche.

Luc Arbogast, Le Condor, La Rioule des Compagnons du Monde - Réveillez vous belle endormie (France)

[Safar]

Danûk, a group of exiled Middle Eastern musicians come together on Morîk to reignite a shared consciousness of the value of homeland through the rediscovery of centuries-old sounds. Danûk manifests archived phonograph recordings of Kurdish folklore and wedding songs that have been preserved in wax cylinders and discs for more than a hundred years in The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv and The Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, into phenomenal auditory icons of profound cultural heritage and identity.

Danûk - De Çêkin (Syria)

"O Rouanez Karet an Arvor" is a traditional Breton hymn sung mainly to Sainte Anne d'Auray.

O Rouanez Karet an Arvor (France)

Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy, MBE (born 23 August 1975) is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson.

The Eliza Carthy Band - Dribbles of Brandy (GB)

In MacColl’s hands, the whole idea of the haar – the sea mist that inspired the album – becomes both metaphorical and literal. Literal in the sense that the visual images created by the title track are recognisably foggy, tricky, slightly eerie; metaphorical in that those same images represent something bigger.

Lauren MacColl - Haar (Scotland)

Spoiler for Lauren MacColl - An-raoir:

Spoiler for Lauren MacColl - The Lost Bell / Women of the Shore: