Griot Blues

The septuagenarian black American bluesman Mighty Mo Rodgers and the Malian griot Baba Sissoko met on tour in Lithuania in 2015. They shared no common language other than music but the bond was strong enough to persuade them to spend five days in the studio together. The 11 songs they recorded add a sturdy new chapter to an increasingly rich tradition of such collaborations, running from Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder's 1994 Grammy-winning Talkin’ Timbuktu to Boubacar Traoré's brilliant 2017 Louisiana-recorded album Dounia Tabolo, via such landmarks as Taj Mahal's work with Toumani Diabaté and the inspired teaming of Black Keys man Dan Auerbach and the Touareg guitarist Bombino.

Rodgers’ forte is a throbbing John Lee Hooker boogie, coated in Mississippi mud. Sissoko responds with deep, trance-like African grooves as the electric guitars and bass twine seamlessly with ngoni (lute), kalimba (thumb piano) and djembé (drum). Many of the songs emerged more or less spontaneously in the studio and the mood is captured in Rodgers’ lyrics on the title-track: ‘I met this griot man Baba Sissoko/He played with passion and so much soul/Now we’re two griots playin’ on the road.’