“the good-size audience [danced] throughout the 80-minute show. A cool side note: When the drummer switched to the calabash, he used Bic lighters as percussive tools…Ballads, many with call-and-response vocals and indigenous rhythms, tempered the show and created a nice mixing of styles and ideas.” - Phoenix New Times review of Tinariwen at the Crescent Ballroom.Check out their Live in London DVD on Amazon!

“the good-size audience [danced] throughout the 80-minute show. A cool side note: When the drummer switched to the calabash, he used Bic lighters as percussive tools…Ballads, many with call-and-response vocals and indigenous rhythms, tempered the show and created a nice mixing of styles and ideas.” - Phoenix New Times review of Tinariwen at the Crescent Ballroom.

Check out their Live in London DVD on Amazon!

Tinariwen in The Taos News  for their Taos Mesa Brewing show tomorrow, presented by Roots & Wires:  “He said when he got them four years ago ‘they were with a different agent who knew about us,’ Henderson said. ‘Now they’re with a very large agency that didn’t know anything about Taos. We told them we had (Tinariwen) here before. We couldn’t offer anything near what they wanted.’
Much to his surprise, Henderson received a call a few days later from Tinariwen’s agent, who told him, ‘I don’t know who you are, but they want to come back.’
‘I think they feel a connection here,’ said Henderson. ‘They didn’t realize a place like this existed in America.’”
Yep.

Tinariwen in The Taos News for their Taos Mesa Brewing show tomorrow, presented by Roots & Wires:

He said when he got them four years ago ‘they were with a different agent who knew about us,’ Henderson said. ‘Now they’re with a very large agency that didn’t know anything about Taos. We told them we had (Tinariwen) here before. We couldn’t offer anything near what they wanted.’

Much to his surprise, Henderson received a call a few days later from Tinariwen’s agent, who told him, ‘I don’t know who you are, but they want to come back.’

‘I think they feel a connection here,’ said Henderson. ‘They didn’t realize a place like this existed in America.’”

Yep.

A few photos from Tinariwen’s sold-out show at Hollywood Forever’s Masonic Lodge last night. Great show with an enthusiastic crowd!
GetImidiwan: Companions on iTunes. 

A few photos from Tinariwen’s sold-out show at Hollywood Forever’s Masonic Lodge last night. Great show with an enthusiastic crowd!

GetImidiwan: Companions on iTunes. 

Tinariwen in The Phoenix New Times for next Monday’s show at the Crescent Ballroom:   “The result is music that’s at once rich and inspired, energetic and moving, but also desolate, haunting, and spiritual.” Get Imidiwan: Companions on iTunes!

Tinariwen in The Phoenix New Times for next Monday’s show at the Crescent Ballroom: 

“The result is music that’s at once rich and inspired, energetic and moving, but also desolate, haunting, and spiritual.”

Get Imidiwan: Companions on iTunes!

Terakaft featured on CACE Int’l TV’s Youtube channel! http://ow.ly/k7Anm (embedding disabled) Soon to be aired on the TV show.  The group plays several dates in the UK in May and June. Kel Tamasheq is on iTunes.

Terakaft featured on CACE Int’l TV’s Youtube channel! http://ow.ly/k7Anm (embedding disabled) Soon to be aired on the TV show.

The group plays several dates in the UK in May and June.

Kel Tamasheq is on iTunes.

Tinariwen plays The Chapel in San Francisco on Friday!  SoCal fans can catch them Saturday at the Desert Daze Moon Block Party and Sunday at Hollywood Forever.  Can’t make it to a show? Get their DVD Live in London!

Tinariwen plays The Chapel in San Francisco on Friday!

SoCal fans can catch them Saturday at the Desert Daze Moon Block Party and Sunday at Hollywood Forever.

Can’t make it to a show? Get their DVD Live in London!

(via Local IQ - iQ Interview: Tinariwen)
“…iQ: You told me then that you liked visiting the Native Pueblo people of New Mexico at Santo Domingo and that you felt at home with them.  Ibrahim Ah Alhabib: Yes, really, the first time we came to Santa Fe, on the road from Albuquerque’s airport we made a stop in that village. It was an unplanned improvised visit and the natural courtesy and warmth of the people there gave us a lot of emotions as we felt as if we were again close to our home. All the people we met gave us some homemade bread, which was so great — the basis of hospitality.
At that moment after traveling through many huge cities, we realized the differences among the populations and living situations of the many different peoples in America. I think the people from this Pueblo village are very happy to keep their home in the desert. It is the same for us…
Tinariwen 7p, Wed., Apr. 24 Taos Mesa Brewing 20 ABC Mesa Road, Taos$25 Tickets: call 575.758.1900tinariwen.com taosmesabrewing.com”

(via Local IQ - iQ Interview: Tinariwen)

“…iQ: You told me then that you liked visiting the Native Pueblo people of New Mexico at Santo Domingo and that you felt at home with them.
Ibrahim Ah Alhabib: Yes, really, the first time we came to Santa Fe, on the road from Albuquerque’s airport we made a stop in that village. It was an unplanned improvised visit and the natural courtesy and warmth of the people there gave us a lot of emotions as we felt as if we were again close to our home. All the people we met gave us some homemade bread, which was so great — the basis of hospitality.

At that moment after traveling through many huge cities, we realized the differences among the populations and living situations of the many different peoples in America. I think the people from this Pueblo village are very happy to keep their home in the desert. It is the same for us…

Tinariwen
7p, Wed., Apr. 24
Taos Mesa Brewing
20 ABC Mesa Road, Taos
$25
Tickets: call 575.758.1900
tinariwen.com
taosmesabrewing.com”

(via Hot To Mali)
“The backstory of Tinariwen founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is so cinematic in scope that it should be the basis for an epic independent film. The Mali native was only 4 when he watched as soldiers executed his father, a Tuareg rebel, during an uprising in the early ’60s. 
Later in childhood, Ag Alhabib saw a Western film where a cowboy played a guitar; he was so intrigued he fashioned his own instrument out of a tin can, a stick and a piece of bicycle brake cable.
By the late ’70s, Ag Alhabib had learned many Tuareg Folk melodies and modern Arabic Pop songs during his time in Libyan and Algerian refugee camps, and had obtained an actual acoustic guitar from a local Arab man. He joined forces with other musicians in the Tuareg rebel community to form a band in order to play parties and weddings, which locals dubbed Kel Tinariwen, loosely translated as ‘The People of the Desert…’
…TINARIWEN headlines the Friday night opener of the MusicNOW festival at Memorial Hall, which runs through Sunday. More info: musicnowfestival.org.”

(via Hot To Mali)

The backstory of Tinariwen founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is so cinematic in scope that it should be the basis for an epic independent film. The Mali native was only 4 when he watched as soldiers executed his father, a Tuareg rebel, during an uprising in the early ’60s. 

Later in childhood, Ag Alhabib saw a Western film where a cowboy played a guitar; he was so intrigued he fashioned his own instrument out of a tin can, a stick and a piece of bicycle brake cable.

By the late ’70s, Ag Alhabib had learned many Tuareg Folk melodies and modern Arabic Pop songs during his time in Libyan and Algerian refugee camps, and had obtained an actual acoustic guitar from a local Arab man. He joined forces with other musicians in the Tuareg rebel community to form a band in order to play parties and weddings, which locals dubbed Kel Tinariwen, loosely translated as ‘The People of the Desert…’

TINARIWEN headlines the Friday night opener of the MusicNOW festival at Memorial Hall, which runs through Sunday. More info: musicnowfestival.org.”

Tinariwen’s April US tour begins on the 12th at Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival! Here’s their tour schedule, which includes San Francisco, L.A., Phoenix and more:  Check out their acclaimed album Imidiwan: Companions on iTunes!

Tinariwen’s April US tour begins on the 12th at Cincinnati’s MusicNOW Festival! Here’s their tour schedule, which includes San Francisco, L.A., Phoenix and more:

Check out their acclaimed album Imidiwan: Companions on iTunes!

…And Diara (Liya Ag Ablil), a founding member of Tinariwen:Check out Terakaft’s Kel Tamasheq on iTunes.

…And Diara (Liya Ag Ablil), a founding member of Tinariwen:

Check out Terakaft’s Kel Tamasheq on iTunes.