Kiran Ahluwalia | Aam Zameen : Common Ground

ARTIST:  Kiran Ahluwalia 

TITLE:  Aam Zameen : Common Ground 

LABEL:  Avokado Artists 
REVIEW:  Kiran Ahluwalia is an Indian-Canadian singer-songwriter now based in New York City; she’s known both for her interpretations of traditional Indo-Pakistani forms (especially the love poems called ghazals) and for her wide-ranging cross-cultural collaborations. 

Program October 28, 2011

Public Radio International's The World program recently broadcast an extremely insightful segment about Richmond's own Bio Ritmo.  For a little bit of local color, they interviewed me and used about 10 seconds of that interview in the segment.  You can hear the whole segment here:

http://media.blubrry.com/world/p/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.theworld.org/audio/10192011.mp3

http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/indie-salsa-band-bio-ritmo/

Charts October 23, 2011

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1    BIO RITMO | La Verdad | Electric Cowbell
2    VARIOUS ARTISTS | Electric Cowbell Fall 2011 45 RPM Releases | Electric Cowbell
3    CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT | 2011: A Space Odyssey | Metal Postcard
4    FRENTE CUMBIERO | Meets Mad Professor | Vampisoul
5    EL REGO | El Rego | Daptone
6    JONI HAASTRUP | Wake Up Your Mind | Tummy Touch / Soundway
7    VARIOUS ARTISTS | Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound Of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 | Analog Africa
8    TINARIWEN | Tassili | Anti-
9    MORY KANTE | Sabou | Riverboat
10    LOS DESTELLOS | Constelacion | Secret Stash

Program October 21, 2011

Benin's El Rego (pictured above, greeting Mariam Makeba at Cotonou Airport), is one of the great pioneers of contemporary West African music.  At long last he's the subject of his own reissue collection, researched by Frank Gossner and released by Daptone Records

Charts October 16, 2011

WRIR's World Music Top Ten (what we would have reported to CMJ this week, if they were open)
1 BIO RITMO | La Verdad | Electric Cowbell
2 CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT | 2011: A Space Odyssey | Metal Postcard
3 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Electric Cowbell Fall 2011 45 RPM Releases | Electric Cowbell
4 FRENTE CUMBIERO | Meets Mad Professor | Vampisoul
5 EL REGO | El Rego | Daptone
6 VARIOUS ARTISTS | El Sonido De Tupac Amaru | Masstropicas
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Bambara Mystic Soul | Analog Africa
8 GRUPO 2000 | El Destape | Masstropicas
9 OMAR SOULEYMAN | Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts | Sublime Frequencies
10 MORY KANTE | Sabou | World Music Network

Program October 14, 2011

The Richmond Folk Festival, one of the really great events of the year here, is this weekend.  If you haven't yet prepared your Folk Festival calendar, or if you want to know about what you'll be missing, I'll be playing music from five of the artists I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing at this year's Festival.

Electric Cowbell Fall 2011 45RPM Releases

ARTIST:  various artists 

TITLE:  Electric Cowbell Fall 2011 45RPM Releases 

LABEL:  Electric Cowbell 
REVIEW:  Ex-Richmonder Jim Thomson’s Electric Cowbell Records released a set of seven new 45s on October 11. 

Frente Cumbiero | Meets Mad Professor

ARTIST:  Frente Cumbiero 

TITLE:  Meets Mad Professor 

LABEL:  Vampisoul 

REVIEW:  Not too long ago, cumbia was regarded as a quaintly archaic Latin American popular music form, its distinctive clip-clop rhythm calling to mind a trotting horse (or worse yet, a burro).

El Rego | El Rego

ARTIST:  El Rego 

TITLE:  El Rego 

LABEL:  Daptone 

REVIEW:  Theophile Do Rego, better known as El Rego, was introduced to first-world audiences in Analog Africa’s African Scream Contest and Legends Of Benin compilations.

Charts October 9, 2011

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 TINARIWEN | Tassili | Anti-
2 CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT | 2011: A Space Odyssey | Metal Postcard
3 JONI HAASTRUP | Wake Up Your Mind | Tummy Touch / Soundway
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound Of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 | Analog Africa
5 OMAR SOULEYMAN | Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts | Sublime Frequencies
6 BIO RITMO | La Verdad | Electric Cowbell
7 RENE LOPEZ | E.L.S. | Nat Geo Music
8 LOBI TRAORE | Bwati Kono | Kanaga System Krush
9 SENOR FLAVIO | Nueva Ola | Nacional
10 SAMBA TOURE | Crocodile Blues | Riverboat

Program October 7, 2011

Senor Flavio (pictured above), founder of the seminal Argentine rock en espanol band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, is out-surfing and out-rocking kids half his age.  Don't take my word for it -- tune in this week and you'll hear a track from his stellar new album, Nueva Ola.

Charts October 2, 2011

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO | La Verdad | Electric Cowbell
2 CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT | 2011: A Space Odyssey | Metal Postcard
3 VARIOUS ARTISTS | El Sonido De Tupac Amaru | Masstropicas
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound Of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 | Analog Africa
5 KAL | "Do You Know Who I Am? [Single] | Asphalt Tango
6 LOS DESTELLOS | Constelacion | Secret Stash
7 JONI HAASTRUP | Wake Up Your Mind | Tummy Touch / Soundway
8 GRUPO 2000 | El Destape | Masstropicas
9 RENE LOPEZ | E.L.S. | Nat Geo Music
10 TINARIWEN | Tassili | Anti-

Program September 30, 2011

Let me start with a big Global A Go-Go thank you to the over 500 donors who contributed more than $38,000 during WRIR's Summer 2011 Fund Drive.  Both those numbers are new records for us -- in fact, both are 20 percent higher than we've ever achieved before.  We're blown away by your support and generosity.

Kal | Do You Know Who I Am?

ARTIST:  Kal 
TITLE:  “Do You Know Who I Am?” 
LABEL:  Asphalt Tango 

REVIEW:  Kal (“black” in the Romani language) is one of the most exciting bands in the former Yugoslavia.

Charts September 25, 2011

WRIR's CMJ New World Top Ten
1 BIO RITMO |  La Verdad | Electric Cowbell
2 CAMBODIAN SPACE PROJECT | 2011: A Space Odyssey | Metal Postcard
3 JOLLY BOYS | Great Expectation | eOne Music
4 VARIOUS ARTISTS | El Sonido De Tupac Amaru | Masstropicas
5 GRUPO 2000 | El Destape | Masstropicas
6 TABOU COMBO | Respect | Secret Stash
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS | 101 Things To Do In Bongolia | Electric Cowbell
8 RAY LUGO AND THE BOOGALOO DESTROYERS | Mi Watusi | Freestyle
9 SEUN ANIKULAPO-KUTI AND EGYPT 80 | From Africa With Fury: Rise | Knitting Factory
10 GRUPO OZ | Miss Thing | Secret Stash