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Roland Tchakounté

From Cameroon

Damn right this West African guitarist has got the blues

"My story with the blues emanates from the bitterness that life gave me. I'm angry at life." Ever since he first heard John Lee Hooker's Crawling King Snake and was able to draw the dots from there to the music he heard in his native Cameroon, Roland Tchakounte knew the blues would be his creative outlet, his life's work. Now based in Paris, he, his guitar and his tight little trio have graced stages across the globe, most notably alongside Buddy Guy in Chicago. Although possibly leaning closer to American blues than to his blues-playing continental cousins like Ali Farka Toure and Lobi Traore, Roland nonetheless fuses the traditions of both the Windy City and West Africa. In the process, he forms another bridge between bluesmen on both sides of the Atlantic, supplying further evidence that the blues is a universal experience and speaks with one tongue.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

Roland Tchakounté- Le Blues De L'homme Noir

Roland Tchakounté's » Myspace Page