Womad

Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara

Where Mississippi blues goes back to Africa

You'll most likely be familiar with Justin Adams through the guitarist's work with Robert Plant, Tinariwen or Jah Wobble, or fronting his own band The Wayward Sheikhs. The latest project of his forward-facing, globally enlightened career finds him teaming up with the Gambian musician Juldeh Camara whose main instrument, the one-stringed violin known as the riti, makes a seriously beguiling sound. And when it plays off Adams' fluid guitar lines, the effect is that of Mississippi delta blues travelling home to its West African source. But this is no genteel reunion of styles - the pair refuse to tiptoe lightly around centuries-old traditions, preferring instead to create an impure but thoroughly satisfying cross-breed. Indeed, The Times noted that, when in earshot of Justin and Juldeh, "it is difficult not to imagine Bo Diddley himself playing Ya Ta Kaya or Sanakubay on some 1950s package tour". Recent recipients of a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award and just back from a spell on the road with Tinariwen, Justin and Juldeh's time is now. Make sure you witness it.

Biog by Nige Tassell