Greatest Hits Revisited - From Lamma Bada to Oro, Se Do Bheatha Bhaile

Old friends. The kind you want to visit now and then. You don’t get tired of them because they’re true of heart and always have good things to share. Talking about this week’s playlist, of course, and the last time you heard these tunes on RadioactivaTX.org was in March, 2022. You’ve probably forgotten them all by now. So, alongside the more obscure sounds from the wide, wide world of music you’ll be pulled out of your reverie by the Rolling Stones’ “Mercy Mercy” Nino Rota’s “Arrivaderci Roma” and maybe Gill Scott-Heron singing” Me and the Devil.” Perhaps the Pogues’ “Sea Shanty” will ring a bell and – if you’re Irish - Sinéad O‘Connor’s version of the Irish Republican anthem “Oro, Se Do Bheatha Bhaile.” The remainder consists of sterling examples of the best of the rest you’ve never heard of. So, sip a cool one and drop what you’re doing. You’ve got visitors. JH

Al compás del mundo - programa #134, “greatest hits” from programs #17-20
First broadcast 6-27-24

01 Radio Tarifa - Lamma Bada (Spain)

02 Getachew Mekurya - Yegenet Muziqa (Ethiopia)

03 Foday Musa Suso - Suso's Song (from The Screens) (Gambia)

04 Rolling Stones - Mercy Mercy (England)

05 Gil Scott-Heron - Me and The Devil (USA)

06 Darondo - Legs (USA)

07 The Dave Pike Set - I Got the Feelin' (USA)

08 Nino Rota - La Arrivederci Roma (suite) (Italy)

09 Fedwa Obeid (Lebanon-USA)

10 Ahmed al-Mustapha y Sabah - Rahmak ya malak (Sudan and Lebanon)

11 Jump to Addis - Belomi Benna (Ethiopia)

12 Pogues - Sea Shanty (Ireland)

13 The Chieftains - St. Stephens Day Murders featuring Elvis Costello (Ireland)

14 The Chieftains - Fionnghuala (Ireland)

15 Sinéad O‘Connor - Oro, Se Do Bheatha Bhaile (Ireland)

Comments

British Invasion - 1960s

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India y Nepal y Tibet

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Guitarras del mundo

Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...

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