Songs Around the World

A friend of mine sent this:

This program has a great premise. Lots of talented musicians from all over the world play the same song, and then it’s mixed together. Meanwhile, on video you can see the musicians playing in their own environment. The musician’s name and their location is subtitled. They’ve got South Africa, Japan, Spain, Hawaii, Cuba, Argentina…everywhere.

Most of the musicians are playing outside, so the footage is fascinating. You can see villagers standing around listening, dogs wandering through, children and grandmothers dancing, urban laundry hanging from brightly colored buildings. The musicians are also all dressed differently, some very casually, some in traditional robes and costumes.

The songs are all different. In the playlist I posted above, the first song is in Spanish and then most of the rest are in English; a few are in other languages. It’s all different kinds of traditional and popular music from around the world, including a lot of Western folk music. Country, blues, African, Latin, reggae, etc. A lot of the songs I recognize at least slightly.

There’s even a Jimi Hendrix song, (number 17 on the playlist above). It’s sung in Argentina, Hawaii, by the Lakota in Sioux Falls, in Chicago, Italy, Zimbabwe, New Orleans, Lebanon, Niger, Ojai (which is an expensive, retired-hippie artist’s colony in the mountains north of LA), Ghana, India, Japan, Mali…it’s by far the coolest version of “All Along the Watchtower” that I’ve ever heard.

This is the main link, were you can then choose different playlists, https://www.youtube.com/user/PlayingForChange

Thanks to my friend Rosemary for telling me about it!