Khaira Arby Live For the Tiny Desk

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I’ve been listening to the new live Khaira Arby album and I’ll tell you what: I’m a fan.

So here’s her 2011 Tiny Desk set for NPR.

If you’re not yet familiar with her, Khaira Arby is something known as “The Nightingale of Timbuktu,” while NPR calls her “the queen of desert rock.” Whatever you call her, her musical influence cannot be denied.

According to Wikipedia, “She began singing at a young age for weddings and traditional festivals, and at the age of eleven, began singing in a musical troupe from the city of Timbuktu.” Even after facing family pressure from her father and husband to abandon music, Arby persisted. And we are thankful.

Setlist:

  1. Salou

  2. Cinquantenaire

  3. Goumou

Giant Sand, Live at Mad Dog Studios/The Atlantic Session (01/30/90)

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I don’t know if it’s still around, but when we lived in KY (roughly 2002-2005), I was part of The Sandman Series. This was a CDR series of bootlegs organized by Jim Blackman and Howe Gelb. Basically, the way it worked was that CDRs were sent out to “seeders.” I was a seeder. The seeders committed to recording and mailing the CDRs to a certain number of people (I think it was around 10 but I really don’t remember). I seeded several different discs, but the one I still return to most was called The Atlantic Session.

The core group (at that time) of Howe Gelb, John Convertino and Joey Burns recorded this set as a demo for Atlantic Records at Mad Dog Studios in CA. It was never officially released until the Sandman Series helped bring it to the light of day. As the name suggests, this is a studio recording. The band is tight and the tunes are bitchin.

The set is available at the fantastic Archive.org.

Dive right in.

  • Visit Giant Sand/Howe Gelb’s official website.

  • Follow Giant Sand at Facebook.

  • Follow Howe Gelb at Facebook.

  • Visit the Archive.org page for the show.

  • Browse all posts marked “Giant Sand” here at Holiday at the Sea.

  • Purchase Giant Sand music at Amazon.