Sidi Touré, Toubalbero

Sidi Touré, Toubalbero

A bit of an anomaly in Mali’s desert rock scene, Sidi Touré came from a family of royal lineage in Gao but cast his lot with the political dissidents of the songhai blues rockers of Bamako. On this album in particular Touré has more fully embraced the rock tropes of his fellows and incorporated plenty of electric guitar. The lithe fast-picking swirl of his ngoni is still the dominant force though, and that still makes him sound a bit less western than many of his peers. That swirling ngoni is a perfect fit for an album so delightfully upbeat that you don’t even need lyrical translations to know that they are celebrations of life and humanity. Highlights: “Handaraizo,” “Tchirey,” “Heyyeya”

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Odetta Hartman, Old Rockhounds Never Die

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Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

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