The Good Ones – Rwanda Sings with Strings (Glitterbeat, 2025)
Rwandan folk duo The Good Ones return with Rwanda Sings with Strings, their fifth album and most musically ambitious to date. Most of the album features acoustic guitar, hand percussion, and Kinyarwanda lyrics. However, the duo expands their signature sound with improvised string arrangements by cello and violin. The result is a hauntingly lyrical portrait of rural Rwandan life, marked by resilience, longing, and quiet defiance.
Produced by Grammy-winner Ian Brennan, the album was recorded live without overdubs in a Washington, DC hotel room, a day before the group’s National Public Radio “Tiny Desk” appearance. Over a three-hour session, cellist, and violinist, who had never met or heard the material, joined guitarist and vocalist Adrien Kazigira and percussionist Janvier Havugimana to record 19 songs in single takes. There were no written scores or rehearsals. According to Brennan, the chemistry was immediate and transformative.
The session fulfilled Kazigira’s long-held wish to hear his compositions supported by strings. Known for his introspective songwriting, he wrote over twenty new songs for this project, reflecting a discipline the group has honed across previous recordings, overwriting and selecting only the most essential pieces. As in earlier albums, four songs are named after women.
Other lyrics reflect the shifting dynamics of contemporary Rwandan life. “I Love You So Much, But You Refused to Marry Me (Your Beauty I Cannot Unsee)” examines broken engagements and rural isolation, while “In the Valley of the Turkeys (The Things I’ve Seen)” recounts the group’s travels along the U.S. Pacific coast while touring with Glen Hansard in 2019.
As always, Havugimana contributes vocals and percussion using found materials such as plastic wrap, paper cups, old boots… The Good Ones, friends since childhood, formed their band in the wake of the 1994 genocide. The death of Janvier’s blind older brother, their musical mentor, prompted them to begin searching for “the good ones” in post-conflict Rwanda.
The album’s mood, marked by melancholic strings and stark clarity, invites comparisons to Malian singer-songwriter Boubacar Traoré. There is a sense of lived-in grace throughout, fragile yet grounded.
The cover photo, taken unintentionally on the same Greenwich Village block as The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, adds a layer of poetic coincidence. The title Rwanda Sings with Strings nods to jazz classics like Charlie Parker with Strings and Ella Fitzgerald Sings.
Despite operating largely outside mainstream circuits, The Good Ones have attracted collaborators from Wilco, My Bloody Valentine, and Fugazi, along with vocal admirers such as Robert Plant. Their modest yet profound career continues to bridge worlds, local and global, rustic and refined, through unflinching honesty and musical communion.
Guitars, lead vocals: Adrien Kazigira; Harmony vocals, tambourine and found percussion: Janvier Havugimana; Cello: Gordon Withers; Violin: Matvei Sigalov
Produced, engineered & mixed by Ian Brennan
The Good Ones discography: Kigali Y’ Izahabu (2010), Rwanda Is My Home (2015), Rwanda, You Should Be Loved (2019) and Rwanda … you see ghosts, I see sky (2022).
- Agnes Dreams of Being an Artist
- One Red Sunday, You Lied & Tried to Steal My Land
- Kirisitiyana Runs Around
- In the Hills of Nyarusange, They Talk Too Much
- I Love You So Much, But You Refused to Marry Me (Your Beauty I Cannot Unsee)
- Mediatrice, You Left This World Too Soon
- You Were Given a Dowry, But Abandoned Me
- The Valley of the Turkeys (The Things I’ve Seen)
- Everyne, the Earnest One
- The Older Girls Lead the Little Ones Astray
Buy Rwanda Sings with Strings.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.