1. Longa Shahnaaz (w/Tracy Bonham) 2. Rageen Rambling 3. Ya Dunya (w/Tracy Bonham) 4. Kim's Dream 5. Hardened World 6. Black Cadillac (w/Tracy Bonham) 7. Shurooq 8. Last Train to Haifa 9. No Reggae 10. Hard Killing Floor
For this project, producer Oost-Nederland (ON) invited Ad van Meurs, Haytham Safia and Anne-Maarten van Heuvelen; their assignment was to investigate a possible combination of folk-blues and traditional Arabic music. Both folk-blues and the Arabic taqsim (the improvised interplay without a fixed rhythm) are exceptionally suited for storytelling; the former in a somewhat rawer way, the latter mostly lyrical and melodic. In the same way as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie documented their era in the early 20th century, the instrumentalist is the torchbearer of a centuries-old tradition in the virtually unwritten Arabic music culture. Traditional Arabic music differs from other music cultures in the way in which the music scale is subdivided. Thus the music can adopt forms that are nearly impossible in the western octave system. In the No Blues sessions the musicians soon succeeded in establishing a singular integration of folk-blues and Arabic music. A real cross-breeding we call Arabacana. This album has 10 brand new tracks and 3 songs together with Tracy Bonham on vocals and violin.