Canadian banjoist Jayme Stone has received a 2009 Juno nomination in the World Music Album of the Year category from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) for his Africa To Appalachia CD, recorded with African musician Mansa Sissoko.

Stone won a Juno last year for his previous release, Utmost, as Instrumental Album of the Year.

The Duhks also received a nomination for their Fast Paced World CD in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group category.

The 2009 Juno Awards Show will be held on March 29 in Vancouver, capping a three day spree of Juno events. It will be broadcast live on CTV.

Jayme received word of his nomination after returning home from a tour of the UK, where he and Sissoko had the opportunity to perform at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. You can see several photos from their trip on the BBC web site.

Audio from a recent performance on Mountain Stage by Canadian banjoist Jayme Stone and Malian kora player Mansa Sissoko, is now available online. They perform music from their recent CD collaboration, Africa To Appalachia.

The kora is an African harp-like instrument thought to be an early precursor to the modern banjo. Jayme spent time with Mansa during his travels in West Africa and those early sessions are what led to their current recording.

Listen to their 26 minute performance at NPR.org.

Yesterday’s (10/12) edition on Weekend All Things Considered on NPR included a segment on Africa To Appalachia, the recording that was born of banjoist Jayme Stone’s musical journey of discovery in Western Africa. Stone partnered with Mansa Sissoko, a Malian musician who performs on the kora, a predecessor of the modern banjo.

The two are on the last leg of their US tour, and recorded this interview recently at the studios of Minnesota Public Radio.

The segment ran nine and a half minutes including a discussion of the evolution of what we now recognize as the banjo from its African roots, plus live (in studio) performances of music from the CD.

The audio from the segment, plus a text overview, can be found on the NPR web site.

Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko’s cross-cultural musical adventure, Africa To Appalachia, will be released in the US next Tuesday (September 9) with a lengthy tour of the states starting on September 15.

Stone, the Canadian banjoist, and Sissoko, a Malian kora player and vocalist, collaborate on the CD in a genre-bending mix of tones and styles. The music is beautiful and transparently recorded and, should be welcome to ears open to new and different sounds.

Audio samples and more details can be found on Jayme’s web site, where you can also find details for the tour stops on this upcoming tour.

Jayme and Mansa will also be performing tonight (9/4) on WNYC’s New Sounds program at 11:00 p.m. (EDT). The show is broadcast at 93.9 FM in New York City and streamed live at www.wnyc.org.

Archives are maintained on the WNYC site where you can listen to the show after the fact if you miss the Thursday night broadcast.