Hitching Song: Raissa Hafida and "Ayan Dar Illa Zine"

Today's random song is from a Moroccan Berber pop star and wedding singer named Raissa Hafida. I don't know more than this song, Ayan Dar Illa Zine, is one of her most popular tunes. Even despite the video quality, a Moroccan Berber wedding looks pretty awesome!

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

The Wedding Singer: Omar Souleyman and "Tawwalt El Gheba"

A Sunni Arab wedding musician who is influenced by all kinds of musical styles brings us the random tune for today. Omar Souleyman is from northeast Syria, and started his career as a wedding singer. He has released an astonishing 500 or so studio and live albums, eighty percent of which were recorded at weddings and given to the bride and groom. His styles include Kurdish, Ashuri, Arabic, Turkish and Iraqi influences from the peoples who live in and around his native area. He has performed in Sweden, at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway, at Bonnaroo in Tennessee, and at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark among other places. He also remixed three versions of the Björk song Crystalline, from her 2011 album Biophilia, all of which were included on the second disc of her Crystalline series. This song, Tawwalt El Gheba, can be found on Omar Souleyman's 2015 album Bahdeni Nami.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Dissident Folk: Iļģi and "Ai Māte, Ai Māte"

Today's song is by Latvian band Iļģi, which calls itself the most famous world music band from Latvia. Iļģi was formed in 1981, during the days of the Soviet regime in Latvia, and their focus was on the folk music of Latvia. They traveled around the country looking for folk songs that had never been recorded. In looking for these folk songs, they also uncovered tradition and history that the Soviet government found dangerous because delving into folklore was seeing as an act of dissidence. Their concerts, in which they wore traditional costumes and played traditional Latvian instruments such as the kokle (stringed instrument) and the dūdas (a type of bagpipe) had to be approved by government officials and any perceived non-compliance from regulations could result in a canceled concert or a ban. For a while, their name and that of other folklorists was forbidden to be mentioned in the media. Thus, the band and their work and music were hidden from much of the public for years.

The collapse of the Soviet system freed Iļģi from all restrictions, and also probably freed them from strict adherence to folk music. Musicians being musicians, Iļģi wanted to explore what they were capable of musically and they began to transition from a pure folk band to a post-folk band, where the music became infused with other influences besides Latvian folk. Iļģi still remains true to the traditions - the member of the band who has been with them longest teaches Latvian folk traditions to school children, for example. However, they continue to find their way as a post-folk band. For awhile they went to completely electric instruments, but a new generation of music lovers in Latvia have been demanding to hear more of the traditional music, and Iļģi has been going back to the old instruments. Their music has been described as reflective and meditative in some songs, and upbeat and full of vitality in others. They've been honored many times both in Latvia and abroad. This song, Ai Māte, Ai Māte (Mother Oh Mother), is from their 2006 award winning album Ne Uz Vienu Dienu, a collection of wedding songs.

Irish Magic: The Chieftains with Van Morrison and "Have I Told You Lately"

The Chieftains are pretty fearless in their crossing over into the realm of other genres and doing it well - and in some cases, even giving old hits new life or making them seem better. It must be that Irish magic. Today's random song, Have I Told You Lately by The Chieftains with Van Morrison, is a good example. While The Chieftains were one of the first traditional Irish groups that I ever heard, I came late to the Van Morrison party, but growing up I never really was exposed to Morrison because I didn't really have any older brothers and sisters to introduce me to him. I think I might have, sadly, first heard a rendition of Moondance in a television commercial. But I really like Van Morrison, and over the years have enjoyed all that work I missed, even if I was a johnny-come-lately.

I could write pages on both The Chieftains and Van Morrison. Suffice it to say that The Chieftains are one of the greatest ambassadors of Irish music to the world, and since they've been highlighted on this page before, I've given some history about them already. Van Morrison, from Northern Ireland, is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been described as mystical and transcendental. Some of his albums have appeared near the top of many lists of the greatest albums of all time. He has released 39 albums. The collaboration between Van Morrison and The Chieftains goes back to at least 1979, when they met at the Edinburgh Rock Festival, and agreed to record an album together. The result, 1988's Irish Heartbeat, received positive critical acclaim, including 4 stars from Rolling Stone and one of the best albums of the year from The Village Voice. Have I Told You Lately is Van Morrison's hit song from his 1989 album Avalon Sunset. The song is often sung at weddings, though Van Morrison apparently first wrote it as a prayer, as the lyrics about a "love that's divine" might indicate. On The Chieftains collaborative album The Long Black Veil, where they perform songs with others such as Sinead O'Connor, The Rolling Stones and Tom Jones, they cut this version with Morrison. The result is...well, listen for yourself.

The Most Famous World Music Group from Latvia: Iļģi and "Visi Meži Guni Dega"

About 20 years ago, when I made my first ever trip to Europe, I met a young woman from Riga, Latvia while I was at a meeting in Germany. She was impossibly blond, thin and ethereal and pale almost like a China doll, she dressed in the February chill in a fur hat and warm wools, and she had only a little English with a strong accent. Needless to say, I was somewhat smitten (as I usually am with foreign women with accents). I don't remember much about her other than that - she was with a young man but we exchanged addresses and wrote a couple of letters back and forth before both of us stopped writing. I think it was that sense of foreignness, and all of the sights and culture and beauty and language and the rest I didn't know about Latvia that lay behind her that really got me smitten.

 I am a ardent devotee of travel, and over the past few years I haven't done enough of it. When it comes to places I would like to visit, I'm like a kid in a candy store. In other words, so many countries are out there that I can't choose one to see. I'd love to see Latvia, to visit Riga, to hear Latvian folk songs and modern Latvian rock, to eat Latvian food and drink Latvian spirits. Latvia could well turn out to be like Wisconsin, a place I've lived and loved, except with people who speak a Baltic language. I wouldn't care. I would want to see it and experience it anyway, even for a few days. Now that I'm married, I'm past the days and the desire to put moves on Latvian women, but to hear a female Latvian accent would still excite the old hormones just a little bit.

Latvia comes up because today's band is Iļģi, self-described as "the most famous world music group from Latvia." Iļģi was formed in 1981, during the days of the Soviet regime in Latvia which made it a client state of the Soviet Union along with its neighbors Lithuania and Estonia. Iļģi's focus was on the folk music of Latvia, and they traveled around the country looking for folk songs that had never been recorded. In looking for these folk songs, they also uncovered tradition and history that the Soviet government found dangerous because delving into folklore was seeing as an act of dissidence. Their concerts, in which they wore traditional costumes and played traditional Latvian instruments such as the kokle (stringed instrument) and the dūdas (a type of bagpipe) had to be approved by government officials and any perceived non-compliance from regulations could result in a canceled concert or a ban. For a while, their name and that of other folklorists was forbidden to be mentioned in the media. Thus, the band and their work and music were hidden from much of the public for years.

The collapse of the Soviet system freed Iļģi from all restrictions, and also probably freed them from strict adherence to folk music. Musicians being musicians, Iļģi wanted to explore what they were capable of musically and they began to transition from a pure folk band to a post-folk band, where the music became infused with other influences besides Latvian folk. Iļģi still remains true to the traditions - the member of the band who has been with them longest teaches Latvian folk traditions to school children, for example. However, they continue to find their way as a post-folk band. For awhile they went to completely electric instruments, but a new generation of music lovers in Latvia have been demanding to hear more of the traditional music, and Iļģi has been going back to the old instruments.  Their music has been described as reflective and meditative in some songs, and upbeat and full of vitality in others. They've been honored many times both in Latvia and abroad, and their 2006 album Ne Uz Vienu Dienu, a collection of Latvian wedding songs from various areas of the country, was was voted second best European world music album of 2006 by World Music Charts Europe. They are also five time winners of the best Latvian contemporary folk album. They have released thirteen albums and two greatest hits compilations.

This song, Visi Meži Guni Dega, is from their 2006 album Ne Uz Vienu Dienu.