Arab American Country Music

If there's anything that could be categorized as ethnically American (for much of American culture is the result of the melting pot or tossed salad - whichever metaphor you prefer), the closest might be country music.  So when I was sent an advertisement from a friend about arab-american Kareem Salama performing country music in Bahrain, I was a little skeptical.  If I had said that I was going to perform ethnic Bahraini music, there would be much skepticism there as well!

However, one doesn't get much chance to hear country music live in Bahrain.  So tonight we went to see Kareem Salama perform live at Seef Mall.  And it was really good.  When we got to the mall we found the band of four setting up the sound equipment - I went over to ask if they were going to start on time ("on time" is relative here).  The guy was very friendly, and we quickly began chatting.  Soon the other band members came over, including Kareem Salama.  And boy was I suprised.

He looks arab (duh), and I was (subconsciously, I guess) expecting a Gulf accent.  So I was a little taken aback when a midwestern accent with a slight southern drawl came out of his mouth.  His ethnic background is Eygptian, but he was born and raised in Oklahoma, being surrounded by what he characterizes as a mix of western and southern.  It doesn't get more country than that.  In fact, he has an engineering degree and a law degree from University of Iowa.

Soon the band had to get back on stage to begin playing.  They played for about an hour and Alison and I really enjoyed their music.  The music was fun and the words were engaging.  Enough, in fact, that I've bought the two songs available on itunes (its only $1.98).  We stayed for the hour long set they did, and I was so excited about all of it that I decided to write a blog.

Some of the music is explicitly dealing with the issues facing an Arab American in a climate that has some fear and concern about Arabs living in America.  Some of the music is just "normal" country music.  One of the current songs has an available music video available on youtube, which I've put below.  You can also see some of the media coverage of the band on foxnews.com and cnn.com.