Experiencing Tuareg desert blues around the campfire in the Sahara

During my journey in the Algerian Sahara, I was treated to nightly performances of the Desert Blues by the Tuareg musicians who made up our crew. Desert Blues has evolved to embrace a hypnotic fusion of blues, rock instrumentation, and traditional Tuareg music from Mali, and North Africa – a mix of musical styles fitting to a traditionally nomadic people.

Emerging from the campfire conviviality are songs of love, loss, companionship, and of a deep feeling for the desert – emotions that Tuareg men would not display in their daily lives.

To hear Desert Blues performed around the campfire at night is an opportunity to reconnect with an ancient human ritual that many of us do not have access to in our contemporary Western lives.

Billal, Imaran én ténéré djanet (YouTube link)

Cheikh +Tahir from Tissalawen (Spotify link)