RWANDA, you should be loved The Good Ones

• 1 The Farmer 02:43
• 2 Despite It All I Still Love You, Dear Friend 05:27
• 3 Will You Be My Protector? 02:46
• 4 Where Did You Go Wrong, My Love 04:37
• 5 Young People Are the Future 02:56
• 6 Please Come Back To Me 04:25
• 7 Marciana, You Should Love 02:14
• 8 A Long, Sad Journey Watching You Die 03:16
• 9 Life Is Hard 03:40
• 10 Seraphinne, You are the Prettiest Woman in the World 01:23
• 11 My Wife is as Beautiful as a Sunset 03:48
• 12 My Smartest Friend Has Lost His Mind 03:02
• Total Runtime 40:17

Info for RWANDA, you should be loved

For the The Good Ones' new album, Rwanda, You Should Be Loved, bandleader Adrien Kazigira composed over forty songs. The recording was done live without overdubs on Adrien's farm in Rwanda. Since they live without electricity and have had little access to devices to reproduce musical recordings, The Good Ones' vocalizations are based on the singing traditions and dialect of their local immediate, agricultural district more than by outside and Western influences. Primary songwriter Adrien Kazigira interweaves intricate harmonies with co-singer, Janvier Havugimana, in a style frequently referred to as »worker songs from the streets.« With the musicians rural and remote hilltop origins, the harmonic similarities to American Bluegrass vocals is often eerie. Third member, Javan Mahoro, lends additional background vocals and percussion on select songs. From the moment he laid eyes on them, Brennan said he knew, »What these guys do is precious and rare. Don't f*** it up!«

The Good Ones renown is evidenced by the stellar musicians who collaborated with them on the new album: Wilco’s Nels Cline, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, and Fugazi’s Joe Lally. In 2009, Grammy-winner Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Zomba Prison Project) traveled to Rwanda in search of local music with his Italian-Rwandan wife, filmmaker and photographer, Marilena Delli. After two weeks of crisscrossing the country and listening to countless artists, they met The Good Ones.

From the moment he laid eyes on them, Brennan said he knew, “What these guys do is precious and rare. Don't fuck it up!”

Beginning in 1978 when they were still children, the group’s core members were taught music by Janvier’s older brother who was blind and later perished in the 1994 genocide. They formed the band as a healing process after the genocide and the original trio’s membership reunited Rwanda’s three tribes (with one member each from the Tutsi, Hutu, and Abatwa tribes). It was an active attempt to seek out “the good ones,” after having endured and witnessed unthinkable horrors.

Since they live without electricity and have had little access to devices to reproduce musical recordings, The Good Ones’ vocalizations are based on the singing traditions and dialect of their local immediate, agricultural district more than by outside and Western influences. Primary songwriter Adrien Kazigira interweaves intricate harmonies with co-singer, Janvier Havugimana, in a style frequently referred to as “worker songs from the streets.” With the musicians rural and remote hilltop origins, the harmonic similarities to American Bluegrass vocals is often eerie. Third member, Javan Mahoro, lends additional background vocals and percussion on select songs.

They utilize one-of-a-kind instruments in their music, often incorporating their own farming tools as percussion. Adrien continues to subsist as a farmer on the land that he and his children were born on, where he hid for months and survived the genocide, and the place where his wife died.

Their music and original songs have received great acclaim globally and the group has appeared on various BBC-radio programs, as well as on The Netherlands VPRO national-television breakfast show. In fact, they also have been publicly praised by the likes of legendary Led Zeppelin lead-singer, Robert Plant, and Grammy-winning, platinum-selling group, Mumford & Sons.

In 2010, The Good Ones released their debut album, Kigali Y Izahabu (“Kigali of Gold”), making them the first Rwandan artists to distribute internationally songs in the language of Kinyarwanda. In 2015, they released their follow-up album, Rwanda Is My Home. It was named one of the “Top 50 Albums of the Year” by the Sunday London Times.

2019 year marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide during which over just a three- month period more than 12.5% of the population was killed, resulting in over 1-million deaths by conservative estimates. Most victims were murdered by hand, and many were tortured (often, by slicing their Achilles Tendons with machetes so they would be unable to flee) and raped before being killed.

Adrien Kazigira, vocals, guitar
Janvier Havugimana, percussion, harmony vocals, guitar, lead vocal on “Young People Are the Future”)
Javan Mahoro, background vocals, additional percussion, guitar

The Good Ones
A trio of musicians from Kigali, the impoverished capital city of Rwanda, the Good Ones play a poignant, and raw form of folk music that relies on a minimalist setup of acoustic guitars, harmonies, and occasional hand percussion. Singing in the local dialect of their rustic farming region, they were discovered in 2010 by American producer Ian Brennan, who has helped the band record several albums, the third of which, 2019's RWANDA, You Should Be Loved, was their first to featured outside guest musicians.

Adrien Kazigira, Stany Hitimana, and Jeanvier Havugimana are all survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who turned to music as a healing process. Their debut album, Kigali Y' Izahabu, was recorded in one night and released in the late fall of 2010 by Dead Oceans (who donated a portion of the proceeds to various Rwandan humanitarian organizations). Kazigira wrote eight of the album's 12 songs. The trio play two acoustic guitars -- one functions as a bass (because it was missing its two top strings on the night the record was cut) -- and employ harmony vocals and organic percussion. Essentially a field recording, Kigali Y' Izahabu was recorded and produced by Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Malawi Mouse Boys). Brennan returned to Rwanda several years later to help the Good Ones record a second collection. Released in 2015, Rwanda Is My Home added subtle elements like bass and hand percussion -- often in the form of the band's own farming tools -- to the group's sparse mix.

Although recorded in a similar fashion on bandleader Kazigira's farm, the trio's third album, RWANDA, You Should Be Loved, featured a bevy of outside collaborators that included Nels Cline (Wilco), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), and Joe Lally (Fugazi). Culled from over 40 songs Kazigira had written, it was released by the ANTI- label in 2019 and marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. (Thom Jurek, AMG)

This album contains no booklet.