Trio da Kali - griot musicians from Mali Photo: Trio da Kali
Trio Da Kali from Mali has been announced for WOMAD New Zealand next year. The trio of griot musicians play West African traditional instruments the balafon (a type of xylophone) and bass ngoni or lute and features the kick-arse voice of Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté.
Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita were also announced for WOMAD the same day they won the Best Duo or Group award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2019. Seckou Keita also won the Musician of the Year award.
Blind Boys of Alabama gospel group will also perform in Taranaki come March 2020. The group has been going in various forms since the 1930s. Their star rose after a season on Broadway in the 1980s and again when their recording of the Tom Waits song “Way Down In The Hole” was used as the theme for HBO’s The Wire.
Canadian band the Cowboy Junkies make their first appearance here since Sweetwaters 1999 when they tour next May. The pioneering alt country band has been going for over thirty years with the same line-up. You can catch the sibling trio of Michael Timmins, Margo Timmins and Peter Timmins with original bassist Alan Anton touring their latest album All That Reckoning in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch.
Headlining The Wellington Folk Festival this Labour Weekend is New Zealand singer song writer, Jenny Mitchell, winner of the Recorded Music New Zealand Country Artist of the Year 2019.
Music details:
TRAD: Ladilikan - Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet (World Circuit wcd09)
WAITS: Way Down in the Hole - Blind Boys of Alabama (RealWorld 850918)
WILLIAMS: If I Could Help Somebody - Blind Boys of Alabama / Allen Toussaint (Proper 200303)
BRAHEM: Astrakan Café - Anouar Brahem, Lassad Hosni, Barbaros Erköse (ECM 159 494)
BRAHEM: Le Voyage de Sahar - Anouar Brahem, Francois Couturier, Jean-Louis Matinier (ECM 987465)
TIMMINS: Thousand Year Prayer - Cowboy Junkies (Latent 142)
TIMMINS: Mountain Stream - Cowboy Junkies (Proper PRPCD149)
ROTA: Sonata for flute and harp - Anneleen Lenaerts & Emmanuel Pahud (Warner Classics 9029551471)
MITCHELL: Let Me Be - Jenny Mitchell (NewTracks #229 Sept 2019)
FINCH/KEITA: Clarach - Seckou Keita and Catrin Finch (Private P000648)
