With the release of the single "Play Me A Christmas Song", Stephen Dowd manages to bottle the very specific, blue-hued silence that falls over a living room once the wrapping paper has been cleared away. It is a curious thing, really, how a melody can act less like a sound wave and more like the smell of a candle that was blown out five...

It's outstanding to honor those who have made significant contributions to society. Great people ought to be honored in every way possible. The motivation behind Mariaa Siga's "Mame Bamba" tribute to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba is obvious, but there are other reasons for the song's existence as well. Poet, brave resistance fighter, and nonviolent theist Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba founded the Mouridist and Touba movements. That aspect of...