David and I are members of the unimaginatively named "World Music" organization, that arranges and promotes a Series of concerts in the Boston area each season.  As members we get advance deals on the best seats for all their concerts, and in seasons past we've seen many excellent shows (a few of which I've written about here):  Indian performers like Zakir Hussain and Rahul Sharma, and a kathak dance demonstration by Pandit Birju Maharaj; African artists like the outstanding Oliver Mtukudzi, the legendary Hugh Masakela, and our long-time favorite Angelique Kidjo; and unusual acts like Finland's Varttina. 

We just got the catalog for the Winter-Spring 2008 series, and we went hog-wild - we'll be attending about two concerts a month from January to May and we're really excited about it.  On the menu are some great performers we've seen before, like Angelique, Mr. Masakela, Zakir sahib, and Mali's Toumani Diabate; we're also going to hear a pair of Pakistani qawwals, which I'm really excited about, and interesting-sounding loungey fusion act called Pink Martini, and a bunch of other (mostly African) stuff.  I'll try to write at least a little about each one here, as I wish I'd done for all the terrific concerts we've seen already.  And you can see World Music's event list here.