Songhoy Blues: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

July 14, 2015 by BOB BOILEN • The music I feel most connected to beyond rock is from Mali. The melodies are so fluid, so elegant and most of all so trance-inducing. It often sits on one chord and notes played revolve around that chord. It can feel like a drone at times, and in the case of Songhoy Blues it rocks, lulls and the percussion grooves are not only trance-inducing but dance-inducing. Many of the musicians we know from Mali are in exile, driven out by Islamists threatening musicians and kidnapping