When Jeff and I first shared an office at Wildland Adventures, we became fast friends over our mutual love of Chilean music. I was a big fan of hip hop artist Ana Tijoux and Jeff introduced me the work of folk singer Victor Jara. In the spirit of this shared passion, and as a fun way to enhance our traveler's understanding of a country's history and culture, we're excited to share Outlier Journeys Spotify Channel with you!
Here you'll find curated playlists arranged by country, featuring local artists and composers, plus collections of podcasts or short audio bites related to a destination. This is a work in progress that will continue to grow with time, but the following playlists are ready for your ear. We hope they make you dance!
SOUTH AFRICA PLAYLIST
CHILE PLAYLIST
JAPAN PLAYLIST
ARGENTINA PLAYLIST
PERU PLAYLIST
SPAIN PLAYLIST
To help us pull the playlists together, we enlisted the help of our good friend Campbell Diebolt, a global music aficionado who DJs the weekly world-music "DUTY FREE RADIO" set on Missoula's Community Radio Station. Growing up outside of Philadelphia, he caught the global jams bug early.
"I distinctly remember the first time that I got my hands on a piece of music that was recorded outside of the American culture that I grew up in; it was a cassette of Fela Kuti and Ginger Baker's "LIVE!" album recorded in 1971 at the infamous Abbey Road Studio. When I first heard Fela and the Africa 70 ensemble play Afrobeat, I was instantly hooked. The music was rhythmic, upbeat, and unlike anything that I had ever heard. Over the subsequent days listening to the tape in my childhood bedroom, I delved deeply into the Yoruba lyrics to unpack what Fela was singing about so that I could begin understanding the context of every song. What I quickly learned during those early days of my world music explorations was that music was history and, at that exact moment, my love for exploring cultures through music was born."Â
Campbell in Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia
"Since those middle school days when I was immersing myself in Fela's Afrobeat, I've been fortunate enough to travel the world fairly extensively. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia working with USAID on creating and managing community-based tourism enterprises in rural areas. I've also assisted a team of supremely talented folks in launching a boutique wilderness lodge in the Simien Mountains National Park (also in Ethiopia) named Limalimo Lodge, completed tourism development contract work in Kenya and Fiji. Once returning to The States, I've spent years working in sales and operations positions in the travel industry. Throughout all of those travels both domestic and internationally, my undying love for musical exploration continues on."
A big thank you to Campbell for sharing his time and talent to get this off the ground. For every playlist compiled, we are donating $20 to Soft Landing, a community-based nonprofit working with refugee and immigrant families building new lives in Missoula, MT.
What do you think? Did we overlook one of your favorite artists? What country do you want to hear next? We'll be adding 1-3 playlists each month for the next year. Follow the Outlier Journeys Profile on Spotify to give these a listen and receive notifications when new playlists are published!
Did these playlists inspire you to dream about your next trip? Reach out to travel@outlierjourneys.com to start planning!
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