Tag: Daniel Lanois

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinariwen Shares Urgent “Erghad Afewo”

Pioneering Grammy Award-winning, Tuareg musical pioneers and JOVM mainstays Tinariwen released their tenth studio album Hoggar last week through their own label, Wedge. The album derives its name from the Hoggar mountains, a defiant marker of presence visible for miles and a symbol of a homeland for their displaced people. 

Long known for being fierce advocates for their people’s nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mail and Algeria, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim for its blend of dexterous, Western rock-styled guitar work, Tamasheq language-driven political bent, syncopated rhythms and soaring melodies. 

More than 45 years into their lengthy and storied career, Hoggar reportedly sees the acclaimed masters of the desert blues returning to the foundations of their sound with the band returning to their early years of songwriting with acoustic guitars and communal singing around the desert campfire. The album also sees the band staking their claim as elders of the Tuareg musical tradition while also proudly passing the torch onto a younger generation of featured musicians, who can continue to keep their culture’s flame of rebellion and defiance alive. 

Legendarily known for recording amid the windswept expanse of the Central Saharan desert, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays have long drawn inspiration from the rhythms of nature. With political unrest in Mali prompting the band to seek new spaces, the founding members, who are now based in Algeria recorded the album in studio set up by young Tuareg band and mentees Imarhan in Tamanrasset, which continues their legacy of innovation and collaboration. 

While previously released albums like 2023’s Amatssou saw Tinariwen collaborating with acclaimed producer Daniel Lanois, on Hoggar the band looked closer to home. Gathering with the local Tuareg musical community for a month, founding members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane began writing songs fueled by political unrest alongside young artists like Imarhan’s Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, Hicham Bouhasse  and Haiballah Akhamouk. The band also collaborated with Terekaft‘s Sanou Ag Hamed and Tinariwen co-founder Liya ag Abill, a.k.a. Diarra for the first time in 25 years. 

The album also marks some other firsts: The band’s lead vocalist Ibrahim and Abdallah sing together for the first time in over 30 years, breaking their long-held tradition of each songwriting performing only their own compositions. And there’s a guest spot from acclaimed longtime fan José González. 

Lyrically, Hoggar explores urgent and timely themes, addressing the social and political challenges facing the Tuareg people and northern Mali. The band continues their long tradition of bearing witness through their work, balancing the joy of their celebrated lie shows with reflections on community struggles, resilience and the need for cultural preservation. 

The album will include the previously released “Sagherat Assan,” “Imidiwan Takyadam” featuring acclaimed singer/songwriter and longtime fan Jose Gonzalez, “Amidinim Ehaf Solan,” and the album’s fourth and latest single, “Erghad Afewo.”

Anchored around the collective’s gorgeous, effortlessly bluesy guitar work and call and response-driven melodicism, “Erghad Afewo” is an urgent song calling out those who have sold out their people to fill their empty bellies and a little bit of cash and/or provisions while accurately describing an increasingly impending hellscape.

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with director and animator Axel Digoix, the accompanying video is a gorgeously animated visual that captures the pride, defiance and joy of the Tamashek that includes a fearsome night-time chase through the desert.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinariwen Shares Breathtakingly Gorgeous “Sagherat Assan”

Pioneering Grammy Award-winning, Tuareg musical pioneers and JOVM mainstays Tinariwen just announced that their tenth studio album Hoggar is slated for a March 13, 2026 release through their own label, Wedge. The album derives itself from the Hoggar mountains, a defiant marker of presence visible for miles and a symbol of a homeland for displaced people.

Long known for being fierce advocates for their people’s nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mail and Algeria, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim for its blend of dexterous, Western rock-styled guitar work, Tamasheq language-driven political bent, syncopated rhythms and soaring melodies.

More than 45 years into their lengthy and storied career, Hoggar reportedly sees the acclaimed masters of the desert blues returning to the foundations of their sound with the band returning to their early years of songwriting with acoustic guitars and communal singing around the desert campfire. The album also sees the band staking their claim as elders of the Tuareg musical tradition while also passing the torch onto a younger generation of featured musicians, who can continue to keep their culture’s flame of rebellion and defiance alive.

Known for recording amid the windswept expanse of the Central Saharan desert, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays have long drawn inspiration from the rhythms of nature. With political unrest in Mali prompting the band to seek new spaces, the founding members, who are now based in Algeria recorded the album in studio set up by young Tuareg band and mentees Imarhan in Tamanrasset, which continues their legacy of innovation and collaboration.

While previously released albums like 2023’s Amatssou saw Tinariwen collaborating with acclaimed producer Daniel Lanois, on Hoggar the band looked closer to home. Gathering with the local Tuareg musical community for a month, founding members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane began writing songs fueled by political unrest alongside young artists like Imarhan’s Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, Hicham Bouhasse  and Haiballah Akhamouk. The band also collaborated with Terekaft‘s Sanou Ag Hamed and Tinariwen co-founder Liya ag Abill, a.k.a. Diarra for the first time in 25 years.

The album also marks some other firsts: The band’s lead vocalist Ibrahim and Abdallah sing together for the first time in over 30 years, breaking their long-held tradition of each songwriting performing only their own compositions. And there’s a guest spot from acclaimed longtime fan José González.

Lyrically, Hoggar explores urgent and timely themes, addressing the social and political challenges facing the Tuareg people and northern Mali. The band continues their long tradition of bearing witness through their work, balancing the joy of their celebrated lie shows with reflections on community struggles, resilience and the need for cultural preservation.

Hoggar’s first single “Sagherat Assan,” is a gorgeous, soulful rendition of a traditional Sudanese song anchored around shimmering and expressive acoustic guitar, syncopated handclap-driven rhythm and yearning harmonies. The song also features mesmerizing, melismatic vocals from Sudanese artist Sulafa Elyas. Much like the bulk of the JOVM mainstays acclaimed work, at the core of “Sagherat Assan” is a deep sense of longing for the homeland — and a sense of responsibility of passing the culture onward to the next generation, before it disappears.

“Sagherat Assan” is a traditional song carried from Sudan to the Sahara, Japonais (one of the band founders who died in 2021) and I were in Al Kufrah (a city at the border between Sudan and Libya) in 1989, when I was beginning to learn the guitar,” the band’s Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni explains. “We met a musician who was playing this song and loved it so much that  Japonais learned it and began performing it again and again, allowing it to travel and endure. This version features Sulafa Elyas, an extraordinary Sudanese singer and oud player now living in exile in France.” 

“The female voice is very important in traditional Tuareg music but it is increasingly hard to find female singers today owing to restrictions placed on them being allowed to sing and train,” the band’s longtime collaborator and producer Patrick Votan adds. “We were lucky to find singers like Sulafa as well as Wonou Walet Sidati, who used to record and tour with Tinariwen in the past, and Nounou Kaola, who also feature on this album.”

The equally gorgeous, animated video by Axel Digoix features the band and their collaborators performing and recording the song in the expanse of the Sahara Desert as the sun sets and the stars come out. The video captures deep bonds of friendship and a passing of the torch to a younger generation.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Acclaimed Drummer and Songwriter Kyle Crane and The Shins’ James Mercer Team Up on a Shimmering and Nostalgic Single

Kyle Crane is an acclaimed drummer and prolific songwriter, who has been a part of the touring bands for the likes of Neko Case, M. Ward and others. Additionally, he was the drum double for the Oscar Award-winning film Whiplash.  Crane recently announced a solo album of his own, Crane Like The Bird, which is slated for a January 18, 2019 release, and the album is reportedly steeped in Crane’s autobiography: Crane’s father was a Coast Guard lieutenant and pilot, whose helicopter went down in a search-and-rescue mission in 1997. The album tells the story of the time leading up to his father’s death and the effects on them; in fact, the album cover photo is a picture of his mother at the crash site, throwing a rose out to sea, and the album art includes his father’s old pilot logs and maps. 

As a result, the album’s material touches on love, loss and memory but also ski lifts and Nintendo, perhaps as a reminder that along with love, a healthy dose of nostalgia is part of the universal experience. Interestingly, the album finds Crane collaborating with a who’s who of indie music including Conor Oberst, Daniel Lanois, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Luke Steele, Peter Bjorn and John‘s Peter Moren, Sabina Scuibba, Brad Mehldau and The Shins’ James Mercer — and each collaborator allows the material on the album to be sonically diverse, as the material nods at points to jazz, New Wave, country and others. The album’s latest single is the jangling, Smiths-like “Wishing Cap,” an achingly nostalgic track that wishes for simpler and easier times, perhaps with loved ones who aren’t with us now. 

Animated by Tim Lierman, the recently released video is a larger metaphor for being transported back in time. After putting the wishing cap on, the video’s hero is transported with the task of healing a world that has fallen apart. That world represents Crane’s broken heart, after his father’s death. As Crane explains, “When I would visit my Grandparents i would stay in my father’s old room that he grew up in. One time I was rummaging through the closet and I found an old shoe box with letters and an old green baseball cap in the closet. I thought ‘what if I put this hat on and it gives me special powers and I can climb through that old photo on the wall and be transported to the past’”

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-18 months or so, you’d likely see that I’ve written quite a bit about the Hamilton, ON-based singer/songwriter, guitar and newest JOVM mainstay Terra Lightfoot. And although she’s a member of Canadian country act Dinner Belles, Lightfoot, who personally has claimed Maybelle Carter, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lead Belly, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, the Hamilton-based singer/songwriter and guitarist has developed a reputation as a solo artist, who crafts raw, slow-burning singer/songwriter guitar pop. Adding to a growing profile across her native Canada and elsewhere, Lightfoot opened for the likes of  Emmylou Harris, Ron Sexsmith, Gordon Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Rheostatics, Grace Potter, The Both, Built to Spill, Sloan, Arkells, Basia Bulat, Albert Lee, James Burton, The Sadies, Steve Strongman, Monster Truck and Daniel Lanois.

Lightfoot’s third full-length album New Mistakes is slated for an October 13, 2017 through Sonic Unyon Records, and as you may recall, the album’s first single “Paradise” found the Hamilton, ON-based JOVM mainstay thoroughly reinventing her sound while still retaining some of the essential elements that first caught the attention of this site and elsewhere — including Lightfoot’s personal and deeply heartfelt lyrics and booming, soulful vocals; however, “Paradise” may arguably be one of the most anthemic songs she’s released to date, as it’s rooted around the sort of bluesy shout and stomp reminiscent of T. Bone Burnett, The Black Keys and others. Of course, the song clearly pushes the Canadian JOVM mainstay’s sound towards a decided, blues rock direction — but it does so while revealing an artist, who has found her own, unique voice.

New Mistakes‘ latest single, the atmospheric  “Norma Gale” may arguably be Lightfoot’s most singer/songwriter-like songs, as it was inspired by her meeting and befriending Norma Gale, a country singer/songwriter, who developed a great following in Nashville and wound up playing with Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty during the 1970s. As Lightfoot explains in press notes, the song chronicles Gale’s life, as she’s trying to make a name for herself as a musician — while raising a young son as a single parent. “I kept in touch with Norma and her son, and let them know when I finally made it to Nashville to do some writing, but unfortunately, she had passed away two weeks earlier,” Lightfoot recalls.  Unsurprisingly, based on Lightfoot’s own work, I can see why she would be drawn to Gale and her story — and as a result, Lightfoot empathetically conveys the strength and resolve to achieve your dreams, even when things are at their most desperate. And as a musician, how can you not see yourself in the struggle of those before you, who have tried to make a name for themselves?

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Terra Lightfoot Returns with an Anthemic, Arena Rock Friendly, New Single

If you had been frequenting this site over the course of last year, you may have come across a couple of posts featuring the Hamilton, ON-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot. And as you may recall, although she may be be best known as a member of Canadian country act Dinner Belles, Lightfoot, who is personally influenced by Maybelle Carter, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lead Belly, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday has developed a reputation for crafting raw, slow-burning singer/songwriter-based guitar pop that nodded at  Patsy Cline and others, as you would have heard on “All Alone,” off her sophomore effort, Every Time My Mind Runs Wild and a gorgeous and mournful, solo rendition of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” that drew influence from Chet Atkins‘ instrumental rendition. Adding to a growing profile. Lightfoot has opened for the likes of  Emmylou Harris, Ron Sexsmith, Gordon Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Rheostatics, Grace Potter, The Both, Built to Spill, Sloan, Arkells, Basia Bulat, Albert Lee, James Burton, The Sadies, Steve Strongman, Monster Truck and Daniel Lanois on stages across France, the UK and her native Canada. 

Lightfoot’s third full-length album New Mistakes is slated for an October 13, 2017 through Sonic Unyon Records and as you’ll hear on the album’s  first single “Paradise,” the album finds Lightfoot thoroughly reinventing her sound while retaining some of the elements that first caught the attention of this site and the rest of the blogosphere — while still being based around Lightfoot’s personal and deeply heartfelt lyrics and booming, soulful vocals, the song is arguably one of her most anthemic songs, rooted around the sort of bluesy shout and stomp reminiscent of T. Bone Burnett, The Black Keys and others. And although it’s a decided, contemporary rock-based, modernization of her sound, it reveals a singer/songwriter, who is actively coalescing her influences into a clear and unique sound and vision. 

As Lightfoot explains in press notes, “For me, ‘Paradise’ is about letting go of perfection in love. It’s not wrestling with the problems and missteps in our relationships but embracing them. I think it’s a more realistic way to look at love and it gives me some comfort to know I’m not standing there with rose-coloured glasses on.  ‘Paradise’ actually started out as a different song called ‘Thunder’ that was a huge hit at our shows. On the last day of tracking the record, I had this crazy idea that I wanted to change the words because I wasn’t happy with all of them, so I set up a pillow fort and a guitar in the tracking room, went to work… and ended up with a new verse melody and completely different lyrics. Gus and Werner liked the new verse so much they said, ‘Okay, now go write a chorus to match that verse” — and ‘Paradise’ was born!

The recently released music video for “Paradise” is a highly symbolic video that features Lightfoot playing solo and then accompanied with her incredibly dapper backing band in an abandoned factory with an unusual intimacy. Along with that there’s a sequence that features Lightfoot dancing joyously in the rain — perhaps after recognizing a truly adult and realistic version of love. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Canadian Singer/Songwriter Terra Lightfoot’s Gorgeous Rendition of a Christmas Season Classic

Lightfoot’s sophomore effort Every Time My Mind Runs Wild was released earlier this year through Sonic Unyon Records and if you’ve been frequenting this site, you may recall that I had written about the Canadian singer/songwriter’s bluesy and heartfelt single “All Alone,” a single reminiscent of a more muscular version of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and “Walkin’ After Midnight,” complete with the same heartache at its core. Just in time for the holidays, Lightfoot released an understated solo rendition of the Christmas season classic “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” which she played for the first time at CBC’s Sound of the Season last year and she recently recorded live at McMaster University’s LIVELab. Interestingly, Lightfoot’s self-accompanied guitar arrangement draws from Chet Atkins’ instrumental rendition.

As Lightfoot explains in press notes about her rendition of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas: “I think I feel comfortable delivering a song like ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ because I can really live inside that gentle mood and melody. The heartfelt lyrics, that sense of fragile security. The melody and chords are stunning, but as a songwriter I also appreciate the uncertainty and underlying tension in the plot: you’re not sure if you’ll make it home, or maybe your home is long gone and you’re wishing you could go back. I don’t know if I would be able to deliver a song like ‘Joy to the World’ with quite as much conviction. ” Interestingly, in some way the tension within the song shouldn’t be surprising as the song was originally written from the perspective of troops separated from their families by war — and considering that families are being uprooted from their homelands and separated from each other by seemingly unending conflict or from politics, Lightfoot’s understated rendition gives the song a subtly modern context, while sounding as though it could have been released in 1957.

Personally, I think what makes Lightfoot’s rendition one of the more compelling renditions I’ve heard in some time is that the Canadian singer/songwriter’s voice conveys a painfully lonely ache and longing — the sort of longing that comes from lengthy periods apart from loved ones and from home.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Early Rock and Blues Sounds of Hamilton, Ontario’s Terra Lightfoot

Lightfoot’s sophomore effort Every Time My Mind Runs Wild was released earlier this year through Sonic Unyon Records and as you’ll hear from the album’s bluesy and early rock sounding latest single “All Alone,” the material explodes with a visceral, heartfelt urgency –and that shouldn’t be surprising as thematically the album focuses on the universal (and classic) themes of love, lust, loneliness and temptation; but perhaps more importantly, the album reveals a singer/songwriter, who has grown exponentially. As the Canadian singer/songwriter notes in press notes, she spent time refining, revising and experimenting with her songwriting approach and listening to tons of vintage pop and rock albums from where she picked up on and mastered old-school techniques and concepts — i.e., tonic chords and middle eights — while crafting tighter hooks. Sonically speaking “All Alone” is reminiscent of a bluesy and muscular version of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and “Walkin’ After Midnight,”complete with the same heartache at its core paired with Lightfoot’s effortlessly soulful and bluesy powerhouse vocal range. Every single time I’ve heard the single I’ve been blown away by Lightfoot’s vocals and by the ache and resolve they express — frequently within the turn of a phrase.

The recently released music video employs a rather simple concept. Shot while Lightfoot was on tour in the UK, the video features the Canadian singer/songwriter wandering around the Scottish highlands with her guitar, singing the song. A beautiful voice paired with some of the most beautiful scenery you can come across — that works. As the Hamilton, ON-based singer songwriter says about the video “We visited a hidden beach, a cemetery, a bog full of petrified wood, a castle, and finally a dreamy waterfall . . . The Scottish highlands will always hold a piece of my heart and I’m so glad we were able to capture that sense of awe on film.”

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Daniel Lanois is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer, who’s best known for his production work with  Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Brandon Flowers and U2’s most beloved and famous album, The […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Back in 2006, Montag Mania released their debut effort, Piraya through their own Love Bomb Music Records to favorable reviews in their native Sweden. And as a result of the buzz from that album, they opened for […]