Tuareg Desert Blues – Campfire Recordings

Read time 4 mins

During my journey in the Algerian Sahara, I was treated to nightly performances of the Desert Blues by the Tuareg musicians who made up our crew. Desert Blues has evolved to embrace a hypnotic fusion of blues, rock instrumentation, and traditional Tuareg music from Mali, and North Africa – a mix of musical styles fitting to a traditionally nomadic people.

Emerging from the campfire conviviality are songs of love, loss, companionship, and of a deep feeling for the desert – emotions that Tuareg men would not display in their daily lives.

To hear Desert Blues performed around the campfire at night is a magical experience – an opportunity to reconnect with an ancient human ritual that many of us do not have access to in our contemporary Western lives.

Billal, Imaran én ténéré djanet (YouTube link)

Cheikh +Tahir from Tissalawen (Spotify link)

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