
The Guardian published an article about Tinariwen, a Tuareg collective from the Sahara who are one of the pioneers of desert blues. The article focuses on how the collective is dealing with the (geo)political changes in the region, but it is also a good introduction to desert blues, which I had written about before. Tinariwen are probably better known than Etran de L’Aïr (they won a Grammy in 2011) and sound slightly more melancholic. Sastanàqqàm (“I question you”) is about the lessons learned from living in the desert and is a good introduction to both Tinariwen and the Tuareg.