When African-American musician Billy Waters died in London in 1823, it was in poverty and with his reputation in tatters. Now, 200 years later, researchers and musicians are finally ensuring he gets the respect he deserves
Relentless riffs at the ready as original Touareg rock’n’rollers Tinariwen head to London’s Royal Albert Hall. Tim Cumming sizes up their BBC Proms debut…
Cumbia, disco and video game music are on the playlist for the London-based quartet’s second album. April Clare Welsh pulls up a stool
Erin Cobby reports on six projects using music as a platform to build communities and give the systematically marginalised a voice, both now and in the future
Lithuania’s Black-Horned Moon bids farewell with a final celebration of the country’s pagan past. Simon Broughton investigates…
Celebrating 60 years of Fania Records, we ask Daymé Arocena, Silvana Estrada, Roberto Fonseca, iLe, Meridian Brothers, Orquesta Akokán, Nathy Peluso, Ana Tijoux and many others to pick some Fania classics. Introduction by Erin Cobby. Interviews by Russ Slater Johnson
Les Aunties, a new all-female group from Chad intend to improve women’s rights in their country. A recent tour of Canada has already begun the process. “The impact is enormous,” hears Emma Rycroft
Ibrahim Maalouf has drawn on everything he’s learned during his stellar career to make what might be his crowning achievement, a homage to his ancestry that is more lyrical than any instrumental album can rightly claim to be
With a new album ready, his first in six years and one featuring an all-star cast – Damien Marley, Sampa The Great, Lenny Kravitz – Seun hopes to make a breakthrough: “Reaching the people without the mainstream is not easy,” he tells Jane Cornwell
Tim Cumming talks to East London’s Stick in the Wheel about the rich loaming of folkloric and historical sources that feeds into their distinctive take on ‘the music of the people’
The Irish writer and broadcaster gets lost in music, telling Emma Rycroft of meeting Bob Marley, Nigerian folklore and her recent discovery of jazz
Violence and bigotry towards women are at the root of Frankie Archer’s folk songs. “Some of the shit that women in these 300-year-old songs went through is the same shit women are going through now,” she tells Fred Waine
From smashing eggs to spitting at horses to shouting ‘Yellow car!’, Eliza unpacks the strange daily rituals and superstitions that we indulge in
As they prepare to embark on a final tour, June Tabor and Oysterband’s John Jones discuss the making of their 1990 classic collaborative album Freedom and Rain
A selection of essential releases from the US and Canada including new albums from Nuxalk Radio, Beau Cheval, Laurie Lewis, Jontavious Willis and La Pastourelle
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