Saliha

Saliha
Soca, SO 330

About every other week I add a new reason to: "What constitutes a good a day at the thrift store?" This week's goes like this: "When I need more time browsing through the records than Maria does looking at the whole store." Needless to say: "We are collectors!" When she goes to one without me she often checks for records, checks if I should go too. Sometimes she even brings a record or two home for me. And I gotta say this: "I'm usually not disappointed." She brought me this wonderful Arabic cassette tape. I always loved the music on it but could not post it here because: (1) I didn't know anything about it, not even the singer's name, and (2) I did not know how to create an MP3 out of a cassette tape. These two issues are now overcome, at least to a certain extent: (1) The singer's name is Saliha, and (2) I downloaded and learned to use Audacity.

Saliha is a Tunisian icon born Salouha Ben Ibrahim Ben Abdel Hafidh in 1914, at the village of Nebr, in Kef. Saliha was born to a poor family and had only one sister called “Eljia”. She recorded between 1938 and 1958 (the year she died). I chose the bit more introverted track 2 from the cassette to share.