Folk & Traditional / All styles

A veteran of the great Malian orchestra, the Super Biton de Ségou, Mama Sissoko is an accomplished musician. His music traverses Mandingo, Bambara, Sarakolé, Songhai, Bobo, Peul, Malinke and Bozo traditions, all while flirting with jazz. On stage, Mama Sissoko is a purist who engages with the audience bringing his energy, urgent vocals and truly inspired guitar solos throughout the concert. ‘Live' brings together recordings from a concert given in Paris at La Villette in 1998 and takes us back t…

Ben Chasny's last ultra-indie label release before moving onto greener pastures with Drag City is finally available once more on vinyl thanks to Hermit Hut. Originally released in 2003 on the fabulous Time Lag label, we are now safe to bask in it's psych-folk sunlight again and let me assure you it's worth it. Ditching the voice almost altogether (save for a few wails), For Octavio Paz sees Chasny focussing on his primary skill - the guitar. This is a collection of some of his best solo guitar w…

*Gatefold LP featuring a 20-page booklet.* First official reissue of Nancy & Lee's classic 1968 duets album. The definitive reissue with Nancy's participation. Includes bonus tracks "Tired Of Waiting For You" and "Love Is Strange" from the album sessions. Remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY®-nominated recording engineer John Baldwin. Vinyl pressed by RTI. Q&A with Nancy and GRAMMY®-nominated co-producer of the reissue Hunter Lea. Never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra's pers…

First-generation American Primitive guitarist Richard Osborn studied with Robbie Basho in the late 60's. 40 years later, Osborn finally recorded, appearing on Tompkins Square's 'Beyond Berkeley Guitar' comp in 2010. 'Endless' is his first widely available solo guitar album.  [Osborn has] an unhurried, quiet spirit of adventure, a love of ringing strings and slowly revelatory meditations on the natural world. - Acoustic Guitar Magazine "He's a student of mine and he's better technically t…

Mike and Cara Gangloff’s "Black Ribbon of Death, Silver Thread of Life" is the third in a series of loosely connected melodic investigations released by Mike Gangloff over the past two years. All three were recorded around the Gangloff home in rural Floyd County, Virginia, and were engineered by Joseph Dejarnette (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bruce Greene, Curtis Eller). And all three feature the far-reaching improvisation familiar from Gangloff’s work with the old-time stringbandBlack Twig Pickers…

*2024 stock* In 1962, Karen Dalton summoned Richard Tucker to join her in Colorado, extolling the healthier lifestyle and plentiful gigs at Boulder folk club, The Attic. Upon his arrival, the pair solidified their personal and professional relationship, riding horses in the mountains, and performing as a duo at parties and venues throughout Denver and Boulder. Stories of the spell they conjured - and rumors of tapes - have circulated among friends and musicians who witnessed them, but until now,…

One of the greatest, heaviest, and most sought-after guitar records from 1970s West Africa, available on vinyl for the first time in over a decade!!!

Big Tip! Another side of modern Malian praise songs: an intimate, stripped down, acoustic session from Namian Sidibé. From a rising generation of young Malian divas leveraging social media, Namian has built a following, publishing videos and dedications in song, accompanied by her cousin Jules Diabaté on acoustic guitar. Recorded at her home, with powerful yet restrained vocals that drift over melancholy acoustic guitar, Namian explores epic generational songs and poetry, brought into the Tik To…

*2024 reissue* This  - somehow - mythological album from one of Iran’s top sitarist lurches between traditional Eastern forms and more modern Western styles, blending the two into a fascinating fusion of cultures and flavours. Similar to the work of Indian rare groove master Ananda Shankar, the record brings to life the ultimate marriage of funky drums, lush horns, wah-wah guitars and Eastern harmonies. A necessary re-discovery !

*2022 stock.* In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the recording of the seminal classic Tibetan Bells by Henry Wolff and Nancy Hennings (recorded 1971, issued 1972), we are pleased to offer for the first time ever all five CDs as a complete limited edition set.

*2022 stock. In process of stocking* The entire Music of Armenia series began as a musical detour while David Parsons was on assignment for Celestial Harmonies' The Music of Islam (19907) series. Fortunately, for our history—and evolution—the lost arts, musically speaking, of this biblical area which has and continues to travel the path of love, hatred and destruction, only to someday be revered and loved again, is superbly recreated and created anew. Covering the geographic area of Armenia, as …

Tip! Those recordings of Gongs Orchestras were made during Funeral Ceremonies in two Kung villages and one Jaraï village in Ratanakiri province, Cambodia by Laurent Jeanneau (Kink Gong) in 2003 and 2004, at a times when jungle had not been replaced by rubber plantations. Focusing on funeral's ceremonies, those hypnotics pieces are intense and haunting harmonics sonic experiments. "Adventure brought me to south-east Asia, not academic research. I was based on and off in Banlung, capital of Ratana…

*2022 repress.* An album such as this obviously owes a lot to the atmosphere in which it was recorded, which we can imagine was magical. We know it took place in Fromentel, Normandy, in a farm converted into a studio by the producer Jacques Denjean, known for his work with Dionne Warwickor Françoise Hardyas well as having been a member of the Double Six. It was also at Fromentel, that Denjean would record two fantastic albums with Albert Marcoeur. When Emmanuelle Parrenin followed in his footste…

The accidental matriarch at the head of the recent folk revival, Vashti Bunyan had been championed by everyone from Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Adem as one of folk music's great lost voices. After the reissue of her 1970 LP Just Another Diamond Day, Vashti was coaxed out of retirement to record the Max Richter-produced Lookaftering, an album which featured guest appearances from many of the nu-folk crowd's movers and shakers and formally reintroduced her to the contemporary music scene. …

Best known for his proficiency on the Oud, John Berberian has been releasing music since the early-1960s. While attending New York's Columbia University, Berberian made his professional musical debut playing the Oud in support of violinist Reuben Sarkisian. While completing an MBA from Harvard, Berberian managed to find the time to become a staple on the Manhattan nightclub scene. In 1964 he was signed to Bob Shad's New York-based Mainstream Records, where he recorded a pair of Middle Eastern-th…

2023 marks the twenty-eighth year of Suarasama; it is also the first year for this reissue of their 2013 masterpiece, Timeline. Irwansyah Harahap and Rithaony Hutajulu, Ethnomusicology lecturers at University of Sumatera Utara, founded Suarasama in 1995 after graduating from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology program. Their music, as expressed on both Timeline and Fajar Di Atas Awan (first issued in 1998, reissued by Drag City in 2008) is hypnotic and joyful; progressing ancient North …

** Limited Edition 300 Copies ** La Música De Los Kechwas Lamistas: Registros Sonoros De Comunidades Nativas De Lamas (The Music of the Lamista Kechwas: Recordings of Native Communities of Lamas) compiles various recordings made by Los Abuelos del Wayku, a traditional group made up of the oldest musicians from the native communities of Lamas: Medardo Cachique, Reynaldo Amasifuén, Misael Amasifuén, Daniel Sangama, Remigio Sangama, and Pedro Cachique. The selection and recording process has been c…

*First time reissue!* A wild and funky collection of Afro grooves that was ahead of its time in 1977 and has become a collector’s item in recent years, especially due to the growing international interest in Colombian picó sound system culture. Fruko and his studio bands Wganda Kenya and Kammpala Grupo treat us to a diverse set of African and Caribbean styles, laced with crazy synths, psychedelic guitar and infectious pan-African polyrhythms.

New album from Blod recorded during the second half of 2022 by Gustaf Dicksson. Där Ska Barnet Vara is a continuation of the themes explored on Pilgrimssånger and contains nine more songs dealing with faith in different forms, with a strong presence of death. Compared to Pilgrimssånger, the sound is slightly more lo-fi and fucked up and the approach is somewhat looser and more desperate, but here are some of the strongest and most fragile and heartfelt Blod songs to date. Additional players on t…

Gilles Peterson: "Fascinating… love this. Thoroughly recommended". The Observer: "The focus is on great grooves and fine playing. A band to seek out." The Guardian: "Delightfully quirky album of folk songs reimagined from Afrobeat to reggae" Minyo Crusaders return with theiir highly anticipated sophomore album Tour Of Japan following on from their debut that has sold 4k on vinyl since release and their runaway single smash 'Cumbia Del Monte Fuji' that has almost hit 5million streams on Spotify. …

In the 1970s, Tucker Zimmerman made some low-key acoustic guitar records in England. He was raised in California, and sang like it. And between those two circumstances, Zimmerman happens to have sat in with a whole lotta famous people; The Spiders From Mars, guys from Yes and Traffic and T Rex, Mary Hopkin, Paul Butterfield, Aynsley Dunbar, Ricky Fataar, and plenty more. The seriously famous are always moving along to whatever's new. But Zimmerman has kept his hand in. There were a couple record…

*60 copies limited edition* Reissue of Josephine Foster's 'Joey Will Come If You Invite Her' 45 from 2005.

Power's self-titled debut, received wide praise from UNCUT (9/10, "Masterpiece"), MOJO (4 stars), The Guardian (4 stars), Irish Times (4 stars) and was featured on NPR World Cafe, as well as several BBC programs. 'The Two Worlds' was produced by Peter Broderick and recorded at Analogue Catalogue in County Down, Ireland.In Brigid Mae Power own words : Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they're all about the different feelings I had at the time. Last year I moved back…

* In process of stocking * A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Russell Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone’s Throw’, while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979. Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, fr…

Coyote Canyon is the fourth Rick Deitrick album released by Tompkins Square, recorded 1972-1975 (except "Three Sisters" recorded 1999). From Rick Deitrick "Coyote Canyon is a wilderness area behind my daughter's house where coyotes gather and howl before taking off for their nightly foraging. Little Tujunga (pronounced "Tuhunga") is a river running through the Angeles Forest near a house I lived in five decades ago. Half my ideas for this piece came from onshore guitar ruminating. The rest was i…

2024 stock. This 1960 release is a selection of compositions by Japanese experimental composer Michiko Toyama. The 12 compositions are drawn from traditional Japanese musical forms with additional influence from many of the experimental composers in the West that were active during the twentieth century. Some pieces are sung with instrumental accompaniment; others are spoken poetry. The instrumentation consists of a mix of traditional Japanese and modern Western instruments, including electronic…

Ohio-born Rick Deitrick took up the guitar at 16 and decided to approach his playing as if he was the only guy on an island and the instrument had just washed ashore one day. According to Rick, "I completely divorced my playing from any formal music knowledge, but it was very important to me to use original tuning. During those years, the ‘60s/70's, there was a lot of acoustic guitar playing, often using open tuning as a base. I wanted to create whole tones without de-tuning and keep access to t…

Gaelic and Scottish tales told once upon a time and told today as well, but not just bards and storytellers, but by people - Gaelic-speaking citizens of the world in general and Scotland specifically. Speaking and singing for them here are Isle of Lewis native Mairi Morrison and lowland favorite Alasdair Roberts, aided by a slew of Glasgow luminaries, two original tunes from Roberts and Morrison, and the devotion of Ceol's Craic. Understand? Urstan!

New vinyl reissue remastered from the original 1960s master tapes, packaged in classic Folkways-style tip-on jackets with original liner notes. Lord Invader was one of the most iconic and well-regarded calypso musicians of the mid-20th century. Coming from humble beginnings in the musical hotbed of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Invader gained notoriety for his unique voice and lyrical prowess. Calypso Travels, his final album released just before his death, was produced in New York in 1960 by Folkway…

Elizabeth Cotten's 1958 debut album Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar, (aka Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes) is best known for containing the earliest recording of her classic "Freight Train." The breadth of her repertoire and her endearing style have captivated generations of guitarists and fans of traditional American music. Cotten's self-taught, upside-down, left-handed playing style on the guitar and banjo made her a true original. Many of her deeply persona…

Group Doueh's latest record is here and the plot continues to thicken! From the gorgeously cracked yet all-embracing opening drum roll of Zayna Jumma (the title track), it's evident this band is hell bent on redefining the sound of its influences and in turn, shape the future sound of its surroundings. It's musical alchemy in its purest, most remarkable form, pushing at the boundaries of geographical divergence while simultaneously speaking to the shared resonances between Western rock rhythms a…

Joni Mitchell’s second album Clouds is BPI certified gold and won the 1969 Grammy  (her first of nine) for Best Folk Performance. Originally released 1st May 1969, all tracks were written by Mitchell and the album features a self-portrait as it’s artwork. Featuring ‘Chelsea Morning’, ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’ and one of Mitchell’s best known songs ‘Both Sides, Now.’

**500 copies** "Following up on their eponymous debut LP, this Western Mass quintet has released a live album that expands their musical palette, while retaining the essential magic of their sound. Bill Meyer described Weeping Bong Band's music as a collision between Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke and Hash Jar Tempo (itself a collab between Bardo Pond and Roy Montgomery), and the same mix of drifty Germanic midnights and Bay Area Ballroom sizzle is present on Weeping Bong's sophomore slab.Recorded a…

Led by the guitar virtuoso Omara Mochtar (Bombino), the group's debut LP -- volume two in the Guitars From Agadez series, represents the latest chapter in the modern sound of the Tuareg revolution. As of 2008, the Tuareg rebellion is in full force again, and Bombino is in exile to parts unknown. Agadez has been cut off from the rest of the country. The only road that connects this legendary city with the rest of the country is littered with land mines and the only escorts are the military. This …

** Newly remastered for this edition.  Limited edition pressing ** Shivkumar Sharma, the guitarist Brijbhushan Kabra, and flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia were all aged about 30 when they made Call of the Valley. Shivkumar Sharma, who had made his first solo album in 1960, was responsible for establishing and popularizing the instrument in Hindustani classical circles. Kabra was also having to prove himself because of the guitar's Western and Indian popular music associations Chaurasia's problem was…

* Newly remastered, limited edition pressing * In the 1920s, Tau Moe (pronounced mo-ay), a Hawaiian musician, arrived in India and introduced Hawaiian music to the Sub Continent.  After settling in Calcutta in the early 1940’s, Moe and his family performed, taught and introduced Hawaiian music by building and selling guitars to the local musicians.  Indian filmmakers and composers quickly fell under the spell of these instruments and sounds and made them suitable for playing ragas— the melodic p…

* Newly remastered, limited edition pressing *  Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar’s siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument’s potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra’s instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string…

Nanga Boko Records is very proud to present you "Njitna !" ("I'm Coming" in Bamoun vernacular langage of Cameroun), the official compilation of the finest early recordings (1979/1980) of the Cameroonian composer & musician Théodore Mounta, known on scene as "Ometh". In An Ethical Approach, 50 % Of The Profits Of This Release Go Straight To The Artist. Deluxe hand-numbered edition, limited to 500, includes a bonus track never released on vinyl before! Each record comes with an insert that include…

Pushing past the submissive qualities of her debut, Silva captures a deep and deliberate pop-forward poignancy in her sophomore “Dulce”. Written in the wake of her relocation to Chicago, Silva contemplates new love, a listless fate, sobriety, and maternity all the while retaining the patience of her previous release, “Eros”. Temperate motifs aside, a freer, wilder intensity permeates “Dulce”. Silva shows her roots in both rock n’ roll and the romantic. The fabric of the album gives palpable hint…

**Limited 1st Edition mini lLP paprsleeve in 500 only copies** In Hindustani classical music, jugalbandi denotes a duet performance whereby the soloists are entwined in the exploration of a raga (Indian musical mode). Sheer improvisation, interplay, playful challenge and the mutual nourishment of each other’s musical imagination make this form of presentation extremely dynamic and inspiring for the performers and audiences alike. Providing the fundamental yet responsive rhythmic framework, are u…