Tinarewin

I am happy to report that Tinarewin are alive and well and played an amazing show at the Masonic Temple in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery last Sunday night.  Seeing them very up close and personal in this intimate venue only deepened my love of this band from the Sahara Desert. 

In the 1960s, after social and political upheaval in his native Mali, Ibrahim (photographed left) grew up in refugee camps near the southern Algerian town of Tamanrasset.  One day he saw a film at a makeshift desert village cinema.  It was a western and it featured a cowboy playing a guitar.  The instrument gave Ibrahim a dream.  He built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire and began playing old Touareg melodies on it.  He got real good and met other musicians and poets who shared a similar life experience. They formed a band.  Between then and now, Ibrahim and his fellow band members, were soldiers in Ghadaffi's army, ran with the rebel Tauregs, got famous, won a few Grammys, and have traveled the world singing songs about their homeland.  I just love these guys and the sounds that come out of their guitars and drums.  And let's just say, they're rockin' that Lawrence of Arabia look!

  

Check out their website for more information, music, videos and a tour schedule:.

http://www.tinariwen.com