Following a successful debut North American tour last year, Khaira Arby will make a return visit to America this spring, touring with The Sway Machinery, as well as performing at both SXSW and Mountain Stage.

Arby appears as a guest on The Sway Machinery's most recent record, The House of Friendly Ghosts, Vol. 1 (available March 8th on JDub Records) and will be both performing with the band, and opening the shows with her own band.

Arby's own recent album, Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont Music), shifts seamlessly between the edgy and progressive and the traditional and deeply rooted. Inspired by her cousin Ali Farka Toure, Arby turns to her mixed Berber and Sonrhai roots and draws on a sweet mixture of desert blues and recording sophistication, blending ripping electric guitar with the forefather of the banjo and funky drum breaks with the traditional percussion of the scraper and the calabash.

Born in a village not far from the famed city of Timbutku, Arby is firmly planted in the desert sand. Her creativity flows in part from the people of her home region of Northern Mali-the young musicians in her band all hail from Timbuktu-and from their past and present struggles. As Arby puts it, "Tarab is our land, our home, Timbuktu. Its history, its mystery, everything."

Khaira Arby 2011 Tour Dates:

03/05: The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
03/08: El Rey Theatre. Los Angeles, CA
03/09: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
03/12: Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR
03/17: SXSW - Momos, Austin, TX
03/17: SXSW - The Parish, Austin, TX
03/20: Mountain Stage, Charleston, WV