It's the manifestation of a new sense of self, thanks to Ms. Bridgewater's alliance with multi-instrumentalist and producer Chieck Tidiane Seck. With Mr. Seck as guide, Ms. Bridgewater began her immersion in Malian music by sitting in at jam sessions, singing wordlessly in the company of harp-like koras, lute-like ngonis, and calabashes (drums made from gourds). She penned English lyrics to traditional Malian tunes, and found rapport with some of Mali's leading : It's the : It's It's the manifestation of a new sense of self, thanks to Ms. Bridgewater's alliance with multi-instrumentalist and producer Chieck Tidiane Seck. With Mr. Seck as guide, Ms. Bridgewater began her immersion in Malian music by sitting in at jam sessions, singing wordlessly in the company of harp-like koras, lute-like ngonis, and calabashes (drums made from gourds). She penned English lyrics to traditional Malian tunes, and found rapport with some of Mali's leading instrumentalists -- ngoni virtuoso Sékou "Bassékou" Kouyaté (here, on "Children Go 'Round/Demissénw") and kora master Toumani Diabaté ("Bad Spirits/Bani"). On several songs she shares the spotlight with leading Malian female singers, including African superstar Oumou Sangare; the contrast of vocal styles is fascinating. Though Malian music lends itself comfortably to blues, "Red Earth" mostly transcends this connection. Yet on the title track, when the blues do take hold, Ms. Bridgewater delivers them with bite and nuance, in tandem with griot Fatomata Kouyaté: They sing of the red earth of Bamako, in Mali, and of Bridgewater's birthplace, Memphis, Tenn., conflating the two into a single fertile soil.