Talking Timbuktu 2LP

World Circuit paired Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder for this session, sung across Bambara, Peul, Songhai and Tamasheq, with Touré's desert-blues playing set against Cooder's slide guitar. It won the Grammy for Best World Music Album and made the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list. Sales back up the reputation too, with roughly 238,000 copies sold in the US, making it one of the best-selling records to come out of West Africa's guitar tradition. Buy it for the playing, not the pedigree.