Aziza Brahim – Abbar el Hamada (Glitterbeat, 2016) Western Saharan musician and activist Aziza Brahim explains, “I’m not able to separate politics, cultural and personal…
Captivating Chants from the Desert Sands
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena's Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena's Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
Music Guide for 2016 St. Patrick’s Day
Dark forces are gathering or rather green forces are gathering. People with gallons of green dye are waiting for that moment when they will turn…
Dramatically Elegant Viena
Varttina – Viena (Westpark Music, 2016) Thirty years in the making, the Finnish folk group Varttina started out as a children’s music project in the…
Exhilarating and Captivating Karsh Kale
Karsh Kale – Up (Six Degrees Records, 2016) Six Degrees Records’s release of Karsh Kale’s Up is a bit like being shoved off a cliff…
Delightfully Incandescent Divanhana
Divanhana – Zukva (ARC Music, 2016) As a 2012 participant in the 12 Points Jazz Festival in Porto, Portugal and at the World Music Expo…
The Healing Power of Music
Manish Vyas – Atma Bhakti – Healing Sounds of Prayer (New Earth Records, 2015) Let me say at the outset you not only want Manish…
An Ingenious Cornucopia of Celtic, Flamenco, Gypsy, Arabic, Cuban and South Asian
Sultans of String with Anwar Khurshid – Subcontinental Drift (Century Media, 2015) With releases like Symphony (2013), Move (2011), Luna (2007) and Yalla Yalla! (2013)…
Genuine Sitar Delight
As ephemeral as a curling wisp of burning incense, as intricate as chasing a thread through an elaborate piece of embroidery and as lovely…
A Sweet Convertible Ride into a Latin Music Wonderland
Grupo Fantasma Problemas (Blue Corn Music, 2015) Music fans will know Grupo Fantasma from releases like 2001 self-titled Grupo Fantasma, 2005’s Movimiento Popular, 2006’s Grupo…
World Music Central’s 2015 Gift Guide, Day 10
Classic Rock Edition Trivial Pursuit Board Game – 600+ Questions On Music