Hassan Wargui, Berber banjo from Morocco

I am completely blown away by the playing of this guy, which I learned about courtesy dj/rupture. Rupture has not written about him on his blog, so I know nothing about him. Based on his playing, it would be very cool to organize a tour for him of bluegrass venues, no? Love to see him doing his stuff on the Fayetteville town square during farmers market...

Oh, and the song comes with a translation of the Tamazight lyrics into Arabic!

UPDATE (May 9): See comments from dj/rupture with links and more info. Thanks, rupture, don't know why I couldn't find anything previously!

Highly recommended-- Houria Ivanan: Pop music From Kabylia

Thanks to Abdellah, I just learned about the music blog Cartilage Consortium. They have many interesting tracks of Middle Eastern pop music to download. Check out the most recent post, with two tracks from 1984, from Houria Ivanan, an early pseudonym for Nora At Brahim. Great stuff!