1. Habib Koité (Mali) - N'Ba - 4:40
"N'Ba" means "my mother" in the Bambara language: "we are never too old for a monther's blessing." This song is from Habib's exceptionally good new album Afriki. Buy it! Here is Habib's website in French and English.

2. Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe) - Mbiri Hurimbo - 5:15
Recorded at Oliver's new arts center in Zimbabwe, Pakara Payake, this song is from his fine new album Tsimba Itsoka ("footprint"). The album is about one's presence on the planet. This song's title means, "Fame is sticky". From the concert notes in October in Boston: "A poignant ballad that peers into the bright and dark sides of fame and celebrity. Fame is not something you're born with. It's something that comes to you and sticks to you. It's not you. It's what you do, or the result of what you do. When you're famous, your footprint becomes bigger than your foot. Maybe too big. It becomes easier for people to follow it, even if it's not the best footprint to follow."

3. Souad Massi (Algeria) - Dar Dgedi - 5:29
"Dar dgedi" means "my grandfather's house": "Far out of sight in the middle of the trees, once it seemed like a palace to me ... I live alone at the end of the world." Her site.

4. Kékélé (Congo DRC) - Lolita - 4:29
Headline on a lengthy review on BBC: "Delicious melodies, inspired and original arrangements, faultless and non-indulgent playing, scalp-tingling voices...". And all acoustic to boot, hurray, with Cuban flavoring. As the reviewer found too, our favorites from the album are the two songs written by bandmember Loko Massengo, this song and the other one later in this playlist.

5. Henri Dikongué (Cameroon) - Alasso - 5:31
Good, light listening. Here's an colorful transcribed interview with Mr. Dikongué, who's known as "Cameroon's Global Ambassador".

6. Dobet Gnahoré (Ivory Coast) - Yekiyi - 3:25
This song is a paean to the pan-African artists' colony Ki-Yi M'Bock, founded in Abidjan in 1985 by the unusually-named Wérewére Liking. Dobet started studying at the colony at age 12: "Thank you for lighting my way - I found my voice thanks to you". Her site.

7. Omar Pene (Senegal) - Tane - 4:05
Cross-cultural blues and mbalax from Dakar. You can get his music from Calabash, which has an interesting biography.

8. Henri Dikongué (Cameroon) - Dibumbe - 4:11
This driving song is from Dikongué's recent fourth album Biso Nawa, available from Calabash but apparently not yet from Amazon or other standard sources.

9. Kékélé (Congo DRC) - Bebe Yaourt - 5:02
Thanks for this music, Deb! "Yaourt" is yogurt, but what might "bebe yaourt" mean?

10. Souad Massi (Algeria) - Malou - 6:08
"Malou" means "why is my heart sad?": "... why are these tears on my cheek? ... I didn't notice the passing time, I closed my eyes and I opened them, and time went by, yet my heart became tender...". Her reviews on Amazon are nearly all raves, and for good reason.

11. Habib Koité (Mali) - Titati - 3:23
"Titati" means rocking in Mandinka. This guitar solo is insipired by an old love song whose words say, "Try to know those who love you".`