Hyper-travel with Hardie #4: The Horn of Africa and the Caucasus...

 

Leo Rojas - Chaski

Ecuador is one of the three main Andean countries, and that means lots of traditional music. So what do you do to pump some new life into old traditions? Some groups mimic North American natives outright, with war bonnets on it, buckskin and all the rest. Others are more authentic, and try to mine their own traditions for new insight...

Big Foot Mama - Led s severa

Slovenia is best known for the wife of you-know-who, but there's more to it than that. Slavs may have been the last Europeans, but hardly the least, and Slovenes are one of the anomalies, northerners stuck in the south by virtue of shifty politics. They can rock, too...

Aventura - Su Veneno (Version Bachata)

The Dominican Republic is bachata country, but so much of it sounds so similar, that it gets stale. There's a lot of African blood in the DR--it shows. There are some nice beaches there, too; lots of nice things...

Sharzy-Wan

Not sure where the Solomon Islands are? Think Guadalcanal, and dozens of aircraft lying at the bottom of the ditch that lies beyond your idyllic beach setting--okay, so not THAT idyllic, but not bad. And it's interesting how the reggae buzz goes from island to island, around the world, and largely skipping everything in between, even when the islands are half a world away, maybe antipodes, will check, back later. 'Wan' is the number that comes B4 'Too', BTW, bilong Tok Pisin...