Photo by Thomas Dorn (http://www.thomasdorn.com/)Warriors turned sonic crusaders Tinariwen return to the U.S. in April after a long desert hiatus and fresh off a UK tour with folk/electronic group Tuung. With concerts in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, among others, the tour also features the group's first major U.S. festival date on April 18 at Coachella. Live In London (World Village), a new concert dvd, displays Tinariwen’s mesmerizing onstage vibe, infamous among both world music and rock fans alike. The group’s music and fascinating story have captured imaginations across genres. Once actual warriors in the heavily turbulent homeland of the taureg - nomads in the southern Sahara - the members of Tinariwen first put down their rifles in 1982 and replaced them with their voices and guitars, weapons they discovered to be more powerful. They remained underground until 1999 when the group moved to Bamako, the capital of Mali. Tinariwen have since become a symbol for the plight of the tuareg (or touareg), a people plagued by ethnic cleansing, eternal warfare and merciless drought. The band's struggle and transition from gunmen to axmen will be featured in the Al Jazeera documentary Music of Resistance. Their widely acclaimed 2007 album Aman Iman has also been reissued on vinyl.
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