The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

[Safar]

Born in the rural countryside near Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Joan Soriano fashioned his first guitar from a tin can and fishing line and has never looked back. Soriano plays steel string bachata with equal parts romance and grit. Bachata is essential to Dominican culture and draws upon a variety of influences from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. A practitioner of palo and gaga, Joan blends Afro-Dominican sacred traditions with bachata, imparting his music with down to earth spirit and dance-ability.

Joan Soriano y su banda 'Los Candé' - Maria Elena ay Dios (Dominican Republic)

Spoiler for Joan Soriano - Vocales de amor - Live in Belgium:

Spoiler for Joan Soriano - Que pasará Mañana:

[Safar]

Justin Adams is a guitarist and producer whose distinctive sound is shaped by his eventful life. His childhood in the Middle East sparked a lifelong passion for the sounds of the Islamic world, while his teenage years in the UK instilled in him a love for the raw energy of punk and the hypnotic sounds of dub.
Mauro Durante is a musician (violinist, percussionist, and composer) who carries on the folkloric roots of his native Salento in Apulia in a visionary way. He leads the internationally acclaimed and award-winning Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, which was founded by his family in 1975....

Justin Adams · Mauro Durante - Damme La Manu(England/Italy)

[Safar]

Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning singer and instrumentalist, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.

Rhiannon Giddens - Black as Crow (USA)

Spoiler for Rhiannon Giddens - Shes Got You:

Spoiler for Carolina Chocolate Drops - Cornbread and Butterbeans:

[Safar]

Some know Michael Hurley as Mike, others as Doc Snock, but most don't know him at all. Michael Hurley presents his raw songs in a traditional folk style with country and blues influences, mostly based on guitar and violin. With his unconventional, raspy singing voice, he tells stories of wandering, loneliness, unhappy relationships, and life in the countryside. His music is often described as “outsider folk.” Hurley was born and raised in a rural region of Pennsylvania, where he taught himself to play the guitar at a young age.

Michael Hurley - I Stole The Right to Live (USA)

[Safar]

A Piece of Infinity, the latest album by Meklit, is an invitation to think, to love, and to groove. Celebrating the rich musical traditions of Ethiopia, the Addis-born, San Francisco based vocalist, songwriter, and composer molds folk tunes from a multitude of communities and cultures throughout Ethiopia into jazz-inflected fantasies imbued with warmth and reverence. At its center is Meklit’s voice, which soars and whispers, intoning strength and devotion in Kambaata, Amharic, Oromo, and English.

Meklit Hadero - Ambassel (Ethiopia/USA)

Spoiler for Meklit Hadero - Era Mela Mela:

Xelil Xemgin, born in Efrîn (Afrin), is one of the most important voices in Kurdish music. Influenced early on by his father, he began his musical career in 1978 and founded the legendary group Koma Berxwedan with other artists in 1985.

Xelil Xemgin · Diyar - Şıkraye (Syria)

[Safar]

Ye Vagabonds is an Irish folk music duo consisting of Carlow-based brothers Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn. Diarmuid has described the duo's style as being "connected with the Ulster singing tradition with harmonies that draw on American traditional music". Having grown up speaking Irish at home, they have released several songs in the language.

Ye Vagabonds - I'm A Rover (Ireland)


"Ich ben ne Räuber", the German version can be heard every year at the Cologne Carnival.

Diblo Dibala (born 9 August 1954), often known simply as Diblo, is a Congolese soukous musician, known as "Machine Gun" for his speed and skill on the guitar.
He was born in 1954 in Kisangani. He moved to Kinshasa as a child, and aged 15 won a talent competition which led to him playing guitar in Franco's TPOK band. Dibala remained with the group for only a short period, going on to play with Vox Africa, Orchestra Bella Mambo and Bella Bella, in which band he first played with Kanda Bongo Man.

Diblo Dibala - Laissez Passer (feat. Matchatcha) (DRC)

[Safar]

Patricia Jean Griffin (born March 16, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She is a vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre.
Patty Griffin is among the most consequential singer-songwriters of her generation, a quintessentially American artist whose wide-ranging canon incisively explores the intimate moments and universal emotions that bind us together.

Patty Griffin - Back at the Start (USA)

[Safar]

In order to write and perform music featuring Appalachian subjects, one does not have to have a rural heritage, as proven by the members of Massachusetts-based band Three Tall Pines. Their ... release, All That’s Left, relies heavily on images of farming and the old homeplace, subjects that fans of bluegrass music might identify with the southern mountains – not the urban northeast.

Three Tall Pines - Stone walls (USA)


Imarhan - Tellalt (Algeria)

Spoiler for Imarhan - Tellalt:

[Drjohnrock]

Originally Posted by Safar

Patty Griffin - Back at the Start (USA)

I saw her open for Lucinda Williams back in the day. I wouldn't be surprised if the billing would be reversed nowadays if they played the same show.

[Safar]

With “Sagherat Assani,” the Grammy-award-winning inventors of the desert blues announce the upcoming release of their tenth studio album, Hoggar. Teaming up with Sudanese singer Sulafa Elyas, Tinariwen perform this traditional song that Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and his band member Japonais (who passed away in 2021) first encountered in the Libyan-Sudanese border town Al Kufrah in 1989. “We loved it so much that Japonais learned it, then played it again and again, allowing it to travel and endure,” says Alhousseyni.

Tinariwen - Sagherat Assani (Algeria/Sudan)

The Rio-based project Pra Gira Girar have released a new version of the song “Atabaque Chora“, originally by the trio Os Tincoãs. Written by Dadinho and Mateus Aleluia, the song opened the group’s legendary self-titled 1977 album. The single very much follows in the steps of Os Tincoãs with its close harmonic spaces and Afro-Brazilian chants that made their music so innovative and special. "Deixa a Gira Girar" is the second single released by the group Pra Gira Girar in homage to the Bahian trio Os Tincoãs.

Pra Gira Girar - Deixa a Gira Girar (Brazil)

Parlor Greens is an American soul-jazz band formed in Loveland, Ohio. Parlor Greens' take on Dolly Parton's classic Jolene with their trademark funky organ sound! Gritty Hammond organ takes the melody while Jimmy James' signature rhythm guitar drives the whole thing! Tim Carman holds it down on the kit nice and tight keeping everything right in the pocket in a way that would make Dolly proud!

Parlor Greens - Jolene (USA)

Constantinople is a musical ensemble that chose the journey—geographical certainly, but also historical, cultural and inner—as its cornerstone. It draws inspiration from all sources and aims for distant horizons.

Constantinople (Kiya Tabassian, setar, Ablaye Cissoko, kora; Patrick Graham, Percussion) - Estuary | Estuaire (Iran/Senegal/Canada)