Malian singer Khaira Arby has been the talk of the town here in New York ever since her stunning debut at The Shrine in Harlem last month (check out Afropop Worldwide's account of the amazing evening here) - and in light of her success there, she's added additional dates to her current U.S. tour in support of her international recording debut Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont Music).

For those unfamiliar with the woman they call "The Songbird of The North," Arby hails from a village near the desert city of Timbuktu and draws musical inspiration from her mixed Berber and Songhai heritage - as well as from her famous cousin, the late, great "Desert Blues" innovator Ali Farka Toure.

On Timbuktu Tarab Arby mixes Ali Farka's desert blues with older traditions and a bit of contemporary flash, and achieves magnificent results. Her voice is a force of nature - as big and clear as the desert sky itself - and when she unleashes it on the kind of sedate and meditative desert blues that Toure was known her, there's nothing like it.

See her for yourself, if you can!