Everything about Tim Eriksen is an anachronism and a riddle. He's a post-punk rocker who sings shape-note hymns, a fiddler, a student of the south Indian veena, a story teller, one of New England's leading local musicologists and musical geo-cacher. So trying to put his new recording, Josh Billings Voyage or the Cosmopolite on the Cotton Road into any sort of neat little category is damned near impossible. To create this recording, Eriksen asks us to imagine a quintessential Massachusetts village, one both colonial and modern, rich with people from Africa, Asia, central Europe, England, Ireland as well as the pre-Columbian locals. Try to imagine Thornton Wilder's Grover's Corners as a global crossroads, and all those travelers sitting around at the local diner.     Listen to Cliff Furnald's audio review of this unique new collection of American roots music, complete with some song snippets and a full track from the recording.

Kobo Town is a clever, energetic, razor-edged ensemble whose first CD, Independence, dragged kaiso (aka calypso), kicking and screaming, into the global 21st century. Folk roots run deep in the music of the English-speaking Caribbean, where jumbies (an elusive category of tricksters, jokers and malevolent spirits) still animate oral lore. For Kobo Town, kaiso embodies the Jumbie in the Jukebox, penetrating no-nonsense popular sensibility that zeroes in on human foibles and the boundless human capacity for pretense, megalomania and self-deception. Michael Stone gets the news from Kobo Town in his audio feature.

When Clay Ross moved from South Carolina to New York in 2002 to make his mark as a jazz guitarist, he couldn't have imagined where his musical journey would take him. After becoming a part of the thriving, multicultural music scene in Brooklyn, Ross met up with accordionist Rob Curto, a North American purveyor of Brazilian forró music and leader of Forró for All... Matuto's second album, The Devil & the Diamond, expertly blends Afro-Brazilian folk music with a hefty slice of Americana. While the accordion-driven forró music is at the heart of this release, Appalachian bluegrass, New Orleans R&B and Louisiana Cajun music rounds out Matuto's distinctive sound Alex Brown checks in on this NYC band.

Although the title of this project means "Song of Dreams," the music on Alla Drömmars Sång is as real as it gets. Swedish folk revival queen Lena Willemark joins forces with saxophonist Jonas Knutsson and keyboardist Mats Öberg for a program of timeless, mostly original tunes, plus an unexpected dip into the English popular songbook. What might in others' hands pass for fleeting ditties here become full-blown narratives with beginnings, middles, and ends. That the recording was made in a single day speaks further to the ebullient spirit uniting them. Tyran Grill reviews a new jazz trio.

World music is not about expressing the world at large. How can one capture something that is forever changing? It is precisely the unpredictable intermingling diaspora of peoples, ideas, objects that makes this planet we call home the fascinating assemblage that it is. World music, then, is about forging a world in and of itself from the very stuff of our existence. At its best, it inhales human experience and pays its rewards through the ear. This is the truth of The Arch, an unparalleled collaboration between French producer Hector Zazou and Bulgarian vocal ensemble Eva Quartet, joined by a cast of 50 musicians from around the world. Tyran Grillo takes us inside an extraordinary new work.

It starts with bodhrán and jaw harp and a low-note drone that is felt more than heard. The next layer is a chant of "Ding ding, a ding ding ding," first in a solo voice, then repeated in three-part harmony. More layers are added with plucked violin and accordion. So begins the traditional Cajun song "Tobie LaPierre" which serves as a great introduction to the Canadian trio Vishtèn and their newest recording, Môsaïk. Greg Harness reviews their unique Canadian maritime music.

Greekadelia would have been a wonderful record regardless of the time or the circumstances. The almost patented folk psychedelica that Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis have been turning out for a number of years is really unique – nobody else plays music like this in Greece or elsewhere... That this record comes out during the current turmoil is nothing short of a miracle. What is even more heartening is that this is one of the few Greek roots music records that I've heard being played inside the country: this is not just some whimsical imprint directed mostly to people outside, for the world music scene or circuit. No, this is a record by Greeks for Greeks – this is our record, our remembrance of stories past, often told but still relevant. Nondas Kitsos listens to real local music.

We're told Ethiopian pianist-composer Samuel Yirga never played an instrument before age 16, when he auditioned successfully for a spot at Addis Ababa's Yared School of Music, where classical ruled. But Yirga was most inspired by home-grown Ethiopian traditional, pop and jazz music, as well as American funk, R&B and the likes of Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. Set loose on the 88s, Yirga practiced 12 hours a day for three years, but his open ears and ecumenical bent took him far beyond what the conservatory could offer. An experimentalist, Yirga began composing and gigging around town in a variety of decidedly non-classical venues... Fiercely original, the music on Guzo defies categorization. Michael Stone reviews his new approach to Ethio-jazz.

One way to deal with Zambia Roadside 2: Tonga, Ila, Lozi, Leya, Aushi, Bemba, the second volume in Zambia-born label owner Michael Baird's ongoing study in the thriving local music scenes percolating in a number of Zambia's regions, is to listen to track seven. Here, Enock Mbongwe Haciwa's one-string musical bow, known as the kalumbu, stutters a hypnotic pattern as the 66 year-old retired teacher waxes the Adam and Eve story. The reliance on this particular old-school Biblical tale of patriarchy would mean little if it weren't for Haciwa's vocals, imitative of Eve's despair, as well as his bow playing, which creeps along dangerously, marrying the music of the ancient Khoisan to the modern Tonga, found in Zambia's southern province. Bruce Miller explores some more of the little known musicial gems from Zambia.

Other recent features: Roger Knox, Australia Crebinsky, Spain Bellowhead, UK Cowboy Poetry Gathering Beppe Gambetta & Peter Ostrouschko (concert review) Frigg, Finland Alexander Berne, US Antibalas, US Maria Bethânia, Brazil Suvi Oskala, Finland Jewdyssee, Germany Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. Italy Fanga and Maalem Abdullah Guinea, France/Morocco Juju: Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara, UK/Gambia Hedningarna, Sweden Sofrito, global Zani Diabate, Mali Admir Shkurtaj, Albania/Italy Bratsch, France/Gypsy Fanga and Maalem Abdullah Guinea, France/Morocco Royal Band De Thiès, Senegal Vusa Mkhaya, Zimbabwe Sory Kandia Kouyaté, Guinea

World Music Charts Europe

The WMCE is a once-a-month chart compiled from the reports of world music radio specialists from twenty four European countries.   This month's top artists include Staff Benda Bilili, Frigg, Warsaw Village Band and the The Toure-Raichel Collective. See who is on the air, over there.

MORE ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Review archive Vinicio Capossela, Italy Elina Duni Quartet Annbjørg Lien, Norway I Have My Liberty: Gospel Sounds From Accra, Ghana Iļģi, Latvia Aurelia, Belgium Markku Ounaskari, Samuli Mikkonen, Per Jørgensen Amina Alaoui, Albania Sory Kandia Kouyaté, Guinea Radio Jarocho, US Chicha Libre, US/Peru Francis Bebey, Cameroun Orchester Super Borgou De Parakou Ensemble Polaris, Canada Deux Accords Diront, Belgium Radio Jarocho, US Chicha Libre, US/Peru Accordion Samurai / Tref, Belgium Ry Cooder, US

Interview archive Sauti Sol, Kenya (audio interview) Mauro Durante Attwenger Svøbsk Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino Just a Band Geoff Berner Juan de Marcos González Steve Riley Väsen Makana Ellis Deolinda Frode Haltli and Trygve Seim Tab Benoit Caroline Herring, Claire Holley and Kate Campbell Annbjørg Lien

Audio Specials RootsWorld Radio Archive Guy Klucevsek and Todd Reynolds AcquAria Sacha Silva Ian Blake, Tigran Aleksanyan, Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Andrew Cronshaw Three Metre Day Habbadám