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Folk Column: Sahara Rising

He’s one of the world’s foremost interpreters of north African music. Now Justin Adams is back with a great new album.

Greg McAteer, 24 Oct 2007

One of the most interesting figures in roots music circles, Justin Adams has developed a unique guitar styles that combines a deep love of good old fashioned feelgood blues-rock with an ingrained understanding of the timbres and modalities of North African music.

His distinctive style came to prominence in 1990 with Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart. Since then his playing has lit up albums by artists as disparate as Sinead O’Connor, Tinariwen, Natacha Atlas, Damien Dempsey, Liam O Maonlai and, most recently, Dervish. A true musical nomad, he was instrumental in setting up the Festival In The Desert (not to mention playing on one of the festival’s defining moments, Robert Plant’s genre-shredding ‘Win My Train Fare Home’). The collaboration with Plant dates back to 2002 when he worked with the Zeppelin frontman on the Dreamland album and was solidified when the two co-wrote the Mighty Re-arranger album. He still continues to sling guitar as part of Plant’s Strange Sensations band.

This year has seen him in the studio again, both as a producer – of Tinawaren’s Aman Iman album – and as a performer in his own right, where he has been working on his latest release, a two-hander with Gambian Griot, Juldeh Camara.The resultant album Soul Science is the result of a meeting of two worlds, an Afro-Blues shakedown. After a few years of collaborations with Robert Plant and Tinariwen, Juldeh’s sound seemed like a perfect match for Justin’s guitar and production. An African Master Musician who played in the fields for farmers as a child, Juldeh has the drive and effortless flow of a great Bluesman. And while his instrument brings to mind Delta players like Big Joe Williams, as well as Ali Farka, there is a lilt in his playing that hints at the ancient links between North Africa and the Celtic World. Soul Science is far from a purist piece: it has gritty rock and groove throughout. It uses the ancient Soul Sciences of scale and rhythm to create a 21st Century Afro Blues.



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Greg McAteer

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