Tinariwen - Emmaar

Northern Africa has seen its fair share of conflict. Out of the conflict, Tinariwen's worldly and surprisingly upbeat sound, has risen.

It would be impossible to identify where exactly Tinariwen is based out of. Their name is a loose translation of the area they all stem from. Spanning across the countries of the vast Sahara (better known as the Tuereg region), the varying band members all hail from many different areas and backgrounds. The band originally came together in Libya in the 70's while they were in exile from Mali. Fortunately, they were able to return to Mali during a cease-fire during the 90's. These guys, collectively, have surpassed a multitude of turmoils and hardships which has sewn their musical roots together. 

Their tale spans decades of historical hardships and is truly the most Rock N' Roll tale of its time. The band's founder, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, saw his father executed at the age of four in Mila. He fell in love with music from watching a Western where a cowboy played guitar. Of course, musical instruments were sparse in Mila in the 60's. Thus, Ibrahim made his own guitar out of a tin can, break wire, and a stick. Because Mila's political strife wasn't subsiding, Ibrahim became a  refugee in assorted camps across the Sahara. Finally, he was given his first acoustic guitar from an Algerian man. Ibrahim collected other Tuereg rebel musicians as he traveled from refugee camp to refugee camp. Over time, they became whispered legends over silent, crackling camp fires - music gods. They had no official name during this time, but became known as Kel Tinariwen; "desert boys". They would play at secret weddings and events, attempting to spread their music but leave no trace of themselves. 

In 1980, a political ploy would shift Tinariwen back to Libya due to a decree to have all Teureg rebels return for military training without persecution. Tinariwen made a band decision to stay together and return to Libya in the hopes of creating a peaceful Teureg rebel movement. They met additional band members and grew in size and ambition. Tinariwen set up, to the best of their abilities, a make shift studio. They wanted to spread their message of peace to the Sahara region. They devoted themselves to music and promised that if anyone, from anywhere, brought a blank cassette tape, they would record a song for them live, and for free. These cassettes were traded all over the Sahara from household to household for years.

It was until the 90's that Ibrahim was finally able to return to his home in Mali after 20+ years of exile. There, the band ended their military agreements in Libya and focused solely on making music and started to gain even more popularity. They've been criticized by Muslin extremists for making Satan's music and in 2012 one of their members was arrested during a raid on the group’s studio because he was trying to save their guitars from being destroyed.

Over the years, they've had members pass away, start families, suffer through exile and persecution, but have remained true to their roots in music. Due to recent threats from the Al-Qaeda, they have been unable to record in the open-air desert as they normally would do. They recorded this album in California in the hopes of having the same feel.

Their music is tough for me to describe after knowing their history. I don't know what it is that Ibrahim is singing about exactly, but somehow I feel like I understand. I will say this - they never listened to American blues until 1991.