It's our 5th and last day with Carol Bui who has spent the entire week with us sharing music from her own collection that has informed her upcoming 2011 release, Red Ship, out on her own Ex Oh Records
Carol returns to DC next Wednesday at the Black Cat for a bit of a homecoming show, and you can grab some free tickets to see her live—on us! Til then, Carol has one last one for ya.
Fairuz - Oudak Rannan | Fairuz is from Lebanon and arguably the most popular singer in the Middle East today. She has been around for decades and enjoyed great success after collaborating with her son, Ziad Rahbani, an influential composer and producer.
'Oudak Rannan' is a traditional song and it translates roughly to 'The Banging of the Lute.' This was one of the first songs I heard when I first looked her up and it continues to be the most memorable for me. Before I knew anything about it, I thought it sounded rather dark and menacing, probably because of the slap bass in contrast to the yelping and her full soprano voice.
At the end there are loud, random drum hits that I originally thought sounded like gun shots and my reaction was 'wow this is so bad ass for such an old school singer'! Then I looked up the lyrics and turns out it's just a celebration of the oud, the arabic version of the lute.
It's a foot stomping, celebration kind of song, with a heavy debke (national dance of Lebanon) beat. Love it. It was a huge inspiration for the first song I recorded for Red Ship. "Mira: You're Free With Me."
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