The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

[Drjohnrock]

Originally Posted by Safar

Chico Chico e Fran - Ninguém (Brazil)




Big Thief - Masterpiece (USA)

Thanks as always for your interesting and informative posts, Safar. I've heard about Big Thief but never heard anything by them until now. This song has more heft than stuff I've heard from other bands mining a similar musical vein. I look forward to checking out more of their tunes.

[Safar]

Until a few weeks ago i didn't even know the band name, Big Thief. Nice discovery.

Spoiler for Big Thief - NOT:

Mary Chapin Carpenter returns with Personal History, an 11-song collection recorded at Real World Studios in early 2025 and produced by Josh Kaufman. Framed as a musical memoir, the album finds Carpenter reflecting on the lessons of growing older, charting a course through life’s joys and sorrows with lyrical intimacy and emotional clarity.

Mary Chapin Carpenter feat. Anaïs Mitchell - Home Is a Song (USA)

The Marani Ensemble, founded in 1993, is a men's choir dedicated to the Georgian repertoire. Georgian polyphony has an absolutely unique flavor. It is a music capable of intriguing and touching both the discoverer and the discerning listener. To come together and sing these polyphonies, whether sacred or secular, is to perpetuate and inscribe in the present an ancestral culture.

Ensemble Marani - Netavi Gogov (Georgia)

Spoiler for Ensemble Marani - Tchela:

[Safar]

" ... The Scorpios have a unique story. The collective originally hails from Sudan but fled to London in the 1980s amid the fundamentalist takeover of the country. Before that, several of the musicians had played traditional music at weddings and religious festivals across East Africa and in the Arab states for many years. The collective’s lead singer, Regia Ishag, comes from a renowned musical family, and her father was the guitarist in the Sudanese band from the 1970s with a very similar name, The Scorpions. In London, they met guitarist Adam Bulewski, and The Scorpios were born. Today, the collective also includes musicians from Ghana, Jamaica, Poland, Japan, and the UK, and in 2017, The Scorpios released their self-titled debut album via Afro 7...."

The Scorpios - Azzah (Sudan)

A Sudanese Reggae & Fusion artist, and an accomplished singer-songwriter, composer & multi-instrumentalist. Wd AlZain is one of the most highly regarded voices & figures in contemporary Sudanese Music & Pop Culture. Wd AlZain’s songs tell stories that revolve around everyday issues of Sudanese youth, using a poetic rendition of the simple, colloquial Arabic of modern day Sudan. Peace & Love are the motivation & purpose of his music.

WD Alzain - Aktobi lai - أكتبي لي (Sudan)

[Safar]

They first came together after the split of the Syli Orchestre National and were originally founded in Conakry by the government of the newly independent state of Guinea. Created by the then president, Sékou Touré, they became one of the most prominent national orchestras of the new country…

Orchestre de la Paillote - Kadia Blues (Guinea)

Guillermo Portabales has become one of the greatest names in Cuban music, sharing stages with Joseíto Fernandez, Celina y Reutilio, Barbarito Diez and Beny Moré. His music was hugely influential on the Cuban artists who came together as Buena Vista Social Club, and has spread as far as West Africa where his tunes, in particular El Carretero, have been widely covered by artists such as Cheikh Lô, Africando, Etoile 2000 and Orchestra Baobab.

Guillermo Portabales - Al Vaivén De Mi Carreta (Cuba)

Spoiler for Guillermo Portabales - Tristeza Guajira:

Hailing from Detroit, The Trumpelettes were a gospel group active throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. They issued a few albums and a couple of 45’s in this time, issuing a lot of their material via Ohio’s Bos Records.

Trumpelettes - Soon One Morning (USA)

[Safar]

Fimber Bravo is one of the most influential exponents of cutting edge steel pan in contemporary music....
Hiyah Man fuses high energy steel drum melodies with highlife fusions. It glistens with energy and races along to an energising beat that you can’t help but get whisked up in. This just feels good and as lyrics sing of “melodies that touch the soul”, you can’t help but feel a part of something bright and evolving!

Fimber Bravo - Hiyah Man (Trinidad)

Spoiler for Fimber Bravo - Santana's Daughter: