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10
MONDAY
America’s not the only country with singing cowboys. In Tuva, a former Soviet republic located between Outer Mongolia and Serbia, nomadic herdsmen embrace the solitude of the landscape by vocalizing while they’re working. An ensemble of such horsemen, Huun-Huur-Tu: Throat Singers of Tuva, is touring the world, performing traditional and contemporary Tuvan folk songs that possess a strange beauty. On “If I’d Been Born an Eagle” the group mixes the deep croak of generations-old throat singing with the higher-pitched harmonics of Russian-influenced choral singing and prayerlike wailing. While much of this measure-stretching resembles nothing else in the world but Tibetan chant, the accompanying instrumentation of Tuvan fiddle, flute, drums, and Jew’s harp conjures sounds slightly more familiar to American ears: old-timey C&W, Islamic droning, and the music of Far Eastern wind sections. At 8 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3901 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. $15. (703) 549-5919. (Steve Kiviat)