The band is noted for their excellence in the field of West African guitar music and frontman Hamadal Issoufou Moumine is one of the genre’s best-known guitarists. Given all of this, the always interesting FatCat Records was eager to sign the group. Kaani will be their first worldwide release, coming along this September. Meanwhile, you can look for Tal National on the festival circuit this summer, with the highlight being their appearance at the Chicago World Music Festival this September. Today, we are proud to present the premiere of “Wonghamey” from the upcoming record, which was amazingly recorded in Niamey over two weeks on barely functioning equipment. The meager means don’t hold these musicians down, as their superb talent shines like a diamond through the roughest of lenses.

“You have to be willing to sacrifice everything,” says Katie Wano, “Because once you’re in the air, you have nothing to protect you.” Wano played with Abby Wambach at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and as she speaks, Abby Head On, illustrates just how thrilling and challenging the move can be. Airing as part of ESPN’s Storied series starting 15 May, the documentary celebrates Wambach’s many achievements and narrates her life story, with the sorts of images you might expect: photos of her childhood, the youngest of seven children growing up in PIttsford, New York, apparently competitive from the moment she could be, admiring talking heads, and swelling music on the soundtrack, or, during moments of seeming reflection, an earnest piano plink. Following a basic chronology, from Wambach’s high school stardom through college and then her triumphs as a professional player, the film notes the 2008 friendly game, the 32-year-old Wambach’s 200th, termed by narrator Jack Youngblood a “testament to her durability.” The film includes as well a particular test of that durability, when Wambach collided with another player in 2008 and broke her leg. While she takes it as a lesson that “You can’t get too emotional,” US women’s national team head coach Pia Sundhage remembers thinking, “Gold medal, here we go, off.” At the London games in 2012, the US women’s team does win, with Wambach making a dramatic header.