Mdou Moctar is a Tuareg musician from Niger. His story is as amazing as it is improbable defying his family’s prohibition to play music he built his own guitar using bicycle cables for strings.

As a practicing Moslem, he continues to follow the faith but has devoted his life to music. He’s a lefty musician playing the guitar much like Derek Trucks, with a fingering style that is unique and distinctive, feeling all of the strings and working with vibrato.
He’s also known for close crowd interaction, going into the photo pit to get closer to the audience. He did it twice today, once going all the way in, cord permitting, and as an encore stopped just at the barricade.

Prior to the show, he said, “We play a lot of festivals, and Japan is the best. Thank you.” He was deeply appreciative of the commitment to the environment as well as the cleanliness and the outdoor setting of the festival.

With the band dressed in silk caftans and white scarves, they represented Niger, a place known for Tuareg guitar music, where rebels traded in machine guns for guitars. This West African country pioneered a psychedelic sound that is unmistakable and known through predecessors such as Tinariwen.