Traoré was born in 1962 in the Segou region of Mali. During his teenage years, while studying timbales, he saw another man playing an acoustic guitar and was immediately struck by its beautiful sound. He was soon spending all his time honing his guitar style in bars in Bamako. He released his first cassette, Bambara Blues in 1991. He followed it up with Bamako (1994), Segou (1996) and Duga (1999), which were produced by Grammy-Award wining African guitarist Ali Farka Toure. Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn visited Mali in 1999 and made Mali Music (Honest Jon’s, 2002), which features Albarn sitting in with some of his favorite Malian musicians including Toumani Diabate, Afel Bocoum and Traoré. In 2005, Albarn’s Honest Jon’s label released The Lobi Traoré Group and three years later in 2008 Traoré released I Yougoba (Diesel Motor), a collaboration with the Dutch blues artist Joep Pelt. During his life Traoré performed throughout Europe, Canada, Africa and the United States. He also performed with notable guitarists and songwriters Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. Traoré is featured in the upcoming feature length documentary “Music in Mali: Life is Hard, Music is Good” about a group of Malian musicians including two-time Grammy-award winner Toumani Diabate.