The Secret
Six Degrees Records
This gem of a Malian blues CD has been sitting in my CD basket for a week. It’s not that I don’t appreciate hearing the blues, but that up until now the rain and trying to keep my spirits up, kept me away from listening to a blues recording. But we’ve had a week of sunny days so I popped Vieux Farka Toure’s The Secret into my player. I realize that it’s a cliché to call it snaky desert blues, except that’s exactly what you get with this recording.
Thanks to Vieux’s father, the late Ali Farka Toure and bands such as Tinariwen, the desert blues has attracted an international audience representing diverse age groups. While the songs on this recording would entice a music festival audience, even slipping this disc in a portable player on a sunny, languid day would do the trick. Vieux proves on this international recording that the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, especially when it has its roots in Mali.