Since June 10th, I’ve been exploring contemporary music from Burkina Faso. Vocalist/lyricist Mai Lingani is a dynamite artist and performer and I’ve been following her since 2005 when we performed together at Floyd Fest, an annual world music festival that takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Central Virginia. We performed together again in […]
Tinariwen Rocks Washington D.C.
Thursday night, the group from northern Mali delivered a beautiful performance in Washington D.C. The opening band — an amateur, quirky singer/songwriter American duo from New York City — did little to set the musical mood for the Tuareg headliners. When the heavy, velvet curtains finally did open, it revealed a row of musicians holding guitars. […]
Northern Mali Comes to Washington, D.C.
Tinariwen, the phenomenal guitar-based Tuareg group, will play for us here at the Howard Theater in downtown DC. The group won a Grammy Award in February 2012 for Best World Music Album. Get ready for an exciting report on the show coming up early next week. In the meantime, here is a video segment of […]
Welcome to the New African Music Treasures
In case you haven’t noticed, the VOA radio show, Music Time in Africa, and this companion blog has a new face; and it’s me! So let me begin this new chapter in the history of VOA’s longest running show to introduce myself. I’m Heather Maxwell and am delighted to be taking up the reigns from […]