The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

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Musical guest Calexico and Ray Wylie Hubbard join forces with eTown hosts Nick and Helen Forster for a one-of-a-kind finale interpretation of Ry Cooder's Across The Borderline. [from min. 2:16]

Gaby Merino, Calexico & Ray Wylie Hubbard (Guatemala/USA)

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FRA! is a band with surprisingly fresh sounds mixed to danceable and enjoyable feel-good music from afrobeat, highlife, afro-funk, interspersed with elements of rock. The band was founded in 2015 by a group of 6 friends from Ghana who loved to hang out and play music together.
As musicians, we have decided to use our art at a means of addressing pertinent issues in our society. We are advocates against gender based violence, especially in relationships and marriages.This song carries a very simple message; walk away from all abusive relationships.

The Band FRA! - I'M GONE (Ghana)

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Even this thread has been mixed up in these turbulent times.

Bringing foot stomping’ Cajun music to the world one dance hall at a time… Jesse Lege is the Real Deal!
For more than 40 years Jesse Lege, originally from Guydan LA, has been bringing traditional Cajun dance hall music from the dusty back roads of southwest Louisiana, coast to coast and around the world, playing everywhere from local neighborhood dance halls to the largest international festivals.

Jesse Lege and Friends - Mamou Hot Step (USA)

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The maestro joins four klezmer groups: Brave New World, The Klezmatics, Andy Statman and the Klezmer Conservatory Band for a joyous get-together with unforgettable Klezmer melodies. As he says of the experience, "I caught the bug!"

Itzhak Perlman plays Klezmer (Israel/USA)

Leveret are a highly acclaimed English folk trio renowned for their innovative approach to traditional music, blending consummate musicianship with captivating spontaneity. Formed in 2014, the band comprises three of England’s most celebrated folk musicians: Andy Cutting (melodeon), Sam Sweeney (fiddle), and Rob Harbron (English concertina). Together, they explore English tunes with a fresh yet deeply rooted perspective, drawing on their individual mastery of their instruments to create a sound that is both timeless and strikingly original.

Leveret - The Good Old Way (England)

Spoiler for Leveret - Rain On The Woodpile / Terminus:

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Bristol, England-based banjo player Jamie Francis started gigging at the age of 12, and grew up surrounded by both the blues music popular in his home town of Maryport, and the Irish folk music played by his father. His playing and songwriting styles reflect these varied influences.
Archie Churchill-Moss is one of Britain’s top diatonic button accordion players, he has worked as a session musician for some of the UK’s most well known folk acts and producers as well as performing with Moore, Moss, Rutter - the trio received the coveted BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2011.

Jamie Francis & Archie Moss - The Burning Thread/Da Lounge Bar (England)

Accordionist and composer Rémi Geffroy is a curious musician with many facets. He is rich in different influences and creates his own style in which traditional music, classical music and jazz meet.He was born in Toulouse in 1987 and spent his entire childhood surrounded by traditional music. His grandfather played the harmonica and his grandmother led a folklore group in Aveyron...

Rémi Geffroy - Homéostasie (France)

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The Bembeya Jazz National, a mosaic of Guinean traditions, was founded in 1961. A winner at the first two biennials (1964 and 1966), this orchestra, formed from regional groups, was invited on tour to Cuba and promoted to national orchestra status in 1966. A model for all West African orchestras, it was inspired by Mandingo music adapted to electric guitars, with rhythms reminiscent of Zairean rumba and Cuban orchestras backed by a brass section. Its role is to play all the rhythms of the country. One of its historic members, Achken Kaba, explains: “Guinea is musically a summary of West Africa, and even beyond. [A song about a freedom fighter who was killed]

Bembeya Jazz National - Balake (Guinea)

...the Guelewars Band of Banjul, was born in the 70s, a time when West Africa was dominated by the Afro-Cuban sound, salsa, the rhythmic echoes of rumba from the Congo, and of course the booming Senegalese mbalax. But rather than give in to one of these seductive sirens, the Guelewars Band of Banjul, guided by its creators Boubacar Sadikh Dabo and Laye Mgom, decided to follow its own path; a path paved by the Mandingo music still very much alive in Gambia, by the mbalax of neighboring Senegal, and its local variant the Gambian ndagga, but also by funk and psychedelic rock from across the Atlantic.

Guelewars Band of Banjul - Wollou (Gambia)

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Sangaré is often referred to as “The Songbird of Wassoulou” where Wassoulou is a historical region south of the Niger River, where the music descends from an age-old traditional song, often accompanied by a calabash.
Sangaré’s music draws from genres such as rock, funk, and soul, while maintaining a distinctly African sound.

Oumou Sangaré - Djoukourou (Mali)

Saigon Soul Revival already carry the reference to this buried chapter of pop history in their name. When the band's hometown of Ho Chi Minh City was still called Saigon, there was a lively scene there that adapted soul and rock'n'roll and reinterpreted it for South Vietnamese conditions. Record labels released new singles every week, singing about the hardships of everyday life and love in difficult times over grooving bass lines.

Saigon Soul Revival - Ai Thật Lòng Yêu Ai (Vietnam)

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Tony Allen’s Legacy Finds a New Home in Bogotá: La BOA’s Afrobeat-Colombian Fusion.
The late Afrobeat pioneer’s rhythms are brought into a new context by Bogotá’s La BOA (La Bogotá Orquesta Afrobeat), led by multi-instrumentalist and producer Daniel Michel, in an album that connects Allen’s sound to the heartbeat of Colombia’s capital.
Allen plays the central role in this quite respectfully, but what La BOA play is more than just a bow to Afrobeat. The band not only expands the stylistic spectrum, but also carefully points to the present. Although Allen had already thought much further ahead in his collaboration with Jeff Mills, among others.

LA BOA Meets Tony Allen - LA MAQUINA DE TONY (Colombia/Nigeria)

Jeff Mills and Tony Allen are two masters of rhythm from very different musical worlds. As a pioneer of Detroit techno – tough, minimal, yet infused with the fluidity of jazz and funk – Mills helped establish the drum machine as one of the most familiar musical building blocks of the past 30 years. And as the architect of Fela Kuti’s hypnotising grooves, Allen has been the life-force of Afrobeat since the 1960s, an endlessly innovative drummer whose influence spreads through hip-hop, new wave, punk rock and beyond.

Tony Allen · Jeff Mills - Locked And Loaded (Nigeria/USA)