Puzzle the barefoot bandit

The Bahamas has some pretty good music, though, as elsewhere, much of the older stuff is better than the newer. But what does this have to do with the 'barefoot bandit'? He ended up there after his youthful crime spree! I missed all this at the time, must've overslept...

Nui Video Clip (TE AIRA)

Tuvalu just might be the place to go, if you want to experience truly natural Polynesian culture.  Hawaii gets more tourists in a day then the entire population of Tuvalu, which is sinking, by the way, or rather: the waters are rising over them.  Better hurry!  Fafine tinogalli!

Dry Land Crop - The Sunny Cowgirls

Australia is legendary for its music, of course, on a per capita basis every bit the equal of the US or UK, Gotye or Tame Impala or Courtney Barnett ample proof of that.  But who knew that Australia had a country music tradition complete with capital at Tamworth?  And if American country music had its origins in the hillbilly traditions of Appalachia, this is pure 'western', complete with cowboys and sunsets.  Best of all: they celebrate the land and rural life, far from the city and liking it that way.  Move over, First Aid Kit.  This is the real thing.  Who cares if the cows are mostly sheep?

Metha -(Yom Al Ahad)- ميثاء - يوم الاحد

The United Arab Emirates is not generally where you go when looking for traditional Arab culture--that's Yemen.  Nor is it where you usually go when looking for Arab popular culture--that's Lebanon. UAE is best known for its pampered princes, oil wealth and a resident population less than half of which is native-born--no connection there. Typical music in UAE consists of a dozen or more blokes singing what sounds like battle hymns of the republic, and the presence of women is almost nil, resigned to window dressing in the few music videos that feature an actual narrative. That doesn't mean there is nothing, though, and this lady embodies it well...

Wanda - "Schickt mir die Post" (official)

Austria is easily lost in the European shuffle, what with only 8.5 million souls, but once upon a time it was one of the main players, and not long ago it was.  One of my early revelations as an international traveler was that, "We listen to the same music as you: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and all the rest."  Huh?  Can that be true?  But why?  Is rock-and-roll a condition of the English language?  Hmmm...  But that's not so true any more.  As the American music scene stagnates, Europeans are taking up the slack. Maybe they just needed some time, yeah, that's it, time...

zapaska - nie ma ryby

Ukraine has lots of good music, which you probably already know, if you're a fan of hard-rocking party-hearty Gogol Bordello or the mostly-femme-freak-folk project Dakha Brakha aka ДахаБраха that have both struck world music gold in the last decade or so. Interestingly the former is nowhere to be found on random searches of Ukraine music, though the latter is all over, as well as an apparent spin-off project Dakh Daughters (no, they're not really so ethnic themselves, but literally riffing on it). But I like Zapaska. She's fresh.  The title of the song means "there are no fish."

Bajofondo - El Mareo

Argentina is so lost in its own legend, that it's hard to find music there that isn't tango, or in some way related to it. So about the best that you can do is 'neo-tango' or some other such fusion genre that attempts to go beyond the typical sex-and-sultriness that qualifies as a musical genre when combined with the same three chords in the same minor keys over and over and over. That means Bajo Fondo or Gotan Project, and from there it's a toss-up. I get to talk about Gustavo Santaolalla or Lunfardo 'slanguage'. Both are ex-pat groups, the former in LA, the latter in Paris. Gustavo Santaolalla is a renowned award-winning LA producer and film composer in his own right, and on this song paired with Argentine rock legend Gustavo Cerati. Did I mention that Argentina also has rock music? BTW if you listen to much tango, you'll need to pick up some Lunfardo, in addition to Spanish, which specializes in 'vesre', reversing syllables to ensure exclusive intelligibility only with the inner circle, usually criminals. Thus 'tango' becomes 'gotan'. Get it? Clever, huh? Hmmm...

Mbilo Mbilo-Eddy Kenzo[Official]

Uganda is one of the brighter spots in the sometimes-tortured continent of Africa, and this guy seems something like the Pharrell Williams of it, a pleasant surprise in a modern world where frequently the best music is old music, go figure...

Arrow 1990 - Hot Hot Hot

If you're looking for some signature tune from a country as small as Antigua and Barbuda, you might just have to borrow a number from a nearby island that's even smaller, like UK colony Montserrat. But if you're thinking that this is just some cheap kitschy knock-off of David "Buster Poindexter/New York Doll" Johansen's 1987 US hit, then think again, because it's just the opposite: this is the original, the real deal, with some nice guit licks in the background, too...

Alfredo Zitarrosa - Adagio en mi país

Sometimes to find a county's best work you have to travel in time,
not space. Such is the case with Uruguay, IMHO. Alfredo Zitarrosa is
something of a Uruguayan national treasure, with loyal fans all over
Latin America, but I'd never know that if I hadn't stumbled across him
after a fortuitous riffle through dozens of modern Uruguayan 'remixes'
and pseudo-hiphop and generic pop best described as EDM boom-boom-boom
with random lyrics slathered on for effect. Zitarrosa is a champion of
the common man, and his themes reflect that...