Having a peaceful day after discovering the palm wine guitar music of S.E. Rogie, a guitarist / singer from Sierra Leone whose early influences in his home country were, surprisingly, old Jimmie Rodgers records. He became a popular musician in his country, and became known as "the Jimmie Rodgers of Sierra Leone", with numerous other artists emulating his singing style.
So, to this day, popular music in Western Africa has Texas blues influences, I guess...
S.E. Rogie played in Europe and America, and spent years in Northern California teaching African culture, before returning to his homeland... only to get an album deal with Peter Gabriel's Real World label, only to die shortly after recording his final album, while touring.
I like palm wine guitar's stripped down simplicity, as it gives it a lot of heart. Unfortunately, it palm wine guitar seem to be a dying artform, but if you like S.E. Rogie, you can find a few additional tracks of his here if you're interested. It might also be worth tracking down his last album... like most of their releases, Real World did a very nice job of it.
