Sidi Touré & Friends

Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)

Recorded in Mali in 2009 and released in January on Chicago intelligentsia indie Thrill Jockey, Sahel Folk preserves stilling rural blues from the former Songhaï empire. Descended from the kings of the region, Sidi Touré, not unlike regional innovator Ali Farka Touré, boasts liquid picking and plucking in this series of duets cut at his sister’s home. “Sïnji” (“A Beautiful Woman”) and tender lament “Wayey Zarrabo” (“Women Tiredness”) glint the crystalline fragility of this meditative prayer.

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This article appears in July 8 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.