Meklit Hadero

Add Date: April 13

Artist: Meklit Hadero

Album: On a Day Like This...

Label: Porto Franco

Genre: Folk, international

Comments: The onesheet says: "If Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco's Mission District, she might end up sounding like Meklit Hadero." (Evidently meeting someone for tea causes you to adopt their musical style?) Yet Hadero, an Ethiopian-born, U.S.-raised singer/songwriter, deserves such praise for her beautiful voice and simple-yet-ornate song structures. Check out "Float and Fall," the jazzy Ethiopian traditional "Abbay Mado" and the blues classic "Feeling Good" (which, by the way, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden did for the Dark Was the Night compilation last year).