Bombino

One Liner: Nigerian guitar badass

Poster Position: 17

Thoughts:  So, this guy is pretty awesome.  The interwebs call him a Tuareg guitarist, which I guess means that he plays his guitar in Volkswagen minivans.  Homeboy is from Niger, and does some really excellent guitar work.  I have no freaking clue what he is saying in his songs, but they are funky, bouncing jams that happen to include some serious guitar swag.  He has four albums available on Spotify, and apparently one of those (Nomad) was made in Nashville with Dan Auerbach.  His most popular track is off of that same album, "Amidinine," with 1.18 million listens.

Eight of the top ten most popular tracks on Spotify are from that same 2013 album, and for good reason.  It has a solid groove throughout.  His most recent album, 2016's Azel, is good but not as strong as Nomad.  And Agamgam 2004 (from 2014), is the weakest of the bunch to me.  One interesting item, that new album appears to translate each song title from its original language into English.  For example, "Akhar Zaman (This Moment)."  Cool.  Except for the third song, which says "Inar (If You Know the Degree of My Love For You)."  That's a big ass mouthful for just a single word.

I think the music on Nomad is the best, but I figure you ought to hear more than just that particular sound.  So here is the opening track from the new album, "Akhar Zaman (This Moment)," which clocks in at 71k listens right now.

Pretty good.  Although, I sincerely doubt that I'll actually go hunt this guy's show down and watch him play.  Groovy tunes and all, but I'd likely only go watch him if nothing else was going on.