Sidi Touré visits Canada, celebrates Mali with Koïma

“There was an audience that didn’t understand what I was singing but still really loved it,” Sidi Touré recalls, through his interpreter, when asked about his first North American tour in 2011. “My music has already transcended borders and cultures. Music is one of the only things that doesn’t have a colour, odour, religion, a country – it can transcend any kind of boundary you put in front of it.”

A revered West African musical hero, Touré is a skilled guitarist and singer who represents the region and traditions of Gao in his homeland of Mali. Last year, he released an album called Sahel Folk, his debut for Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records, which prompted him to tour the U.S. and Canada for the first time and win over a new and larger audience.

Touré has returned with a new album called Koïma and a slew of tour dates that bring him to Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on Friday, July 27, Guelph’s Hillside Festival for a show on July 29 and the Edmonton Folk Festival from Aug. 10 to 12.

“It was really a lot of work done by agents, the label and the tour manager, telling me about cultural differences I should be aware of,” Touré says, comparing his last trip to this one. “It’s definitely a lot easier now. I come from a country where there’s nothing but sun and there aren’t buildings that touch the sky.”

While Touré’s last record was a sparse, folk-y, homespun affair, Koïma was produced in a studio and features a more fleshed-out sound, derived from Western African modes and western musical styles like folk, blues and rock. Indeed, there are moments that reflect his early interest in everything from Muddy Waters to Pink Floyd.

By his reckoning, though, Touré's new record is less a departure than a return to sounds he explored on his earliest release, which was only available as a bootleg.

“It had a song on it that everyone compared to John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boom Boom Boom,’ so I’ve always had that style,” he says. “Sahel Folk was the idea of the producer to make the record in that way, but my way of making music has always incorporated these kinds of folk, blues and other guitar styles.”

Even if one doesn’t speak or comprehend the Songhay language Touré employs in song, it’s easy to feel a sense of hope in his music. “Koïma” means “go hear,” and the title track is actually about a pink dune outside of Gao, where wizards purportedly practice magic. Hence, the gentle directive, “go hear the wizards.”

But there are weightier issues afoot as well, such as Malians emigrating to “work until death in Europe or Canada,” as Touré says. Things have gotten even heavier since al-Qaeda forces recently moved in to Mali, occupying the multilingual country and turning its northern region into an austere, Islamist state.

While the current upheaval makes him uncertain about if and when he can return home, Touré remains optimistic and inspired to reflect his life and people in his work.

“The situation in Mali has inspired me to keep writing,” he says. “I’ve written a song called ‘La paix’ or ‘Peace,’ which is inspired by the situation there and I’m playing it live already, even though it’s not even on an album yet. So these kinds of stories and folklore make up my songs.”

See Sidi Touré live at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on Friday, July 27, Guelph’s Hillside Festival for a show on July 29 and the Edmonton Folk Festival from Aug. 10 to 12.