I dreamed a dream of Oran Algeria

After about 5 years of listening to RAI music and writing BIG MAHBOULA and actually meeting Cheb Nasro and seeing Cheb Khaled live, I got this hairbrained idea that I wanted to go to Oran. I had absolutely no money. I had an IRA. In September, I informed my mother that I was cashing in my retirement account and buying a ticket to Oran, Algeria and that I would meet all the rai singers and walk where Hasni walked.

Ok, 3 years later,lots of happy things and very sad things under the bridge, I actually got it together enough to build an English Hasni site. It was RAI that brought me to Algeria even though sometimes I try to forget what brough me there. I met RAINA RAI, Lofti Attar in Oran on one of my trips in December 2007. I have so many happy memories. Seeing Cheb Hindi walking around. Meeting Cheba Djenet. Seeing Cheb Redouane,Cheb Hassan and Kader in person. Seeing the Hadef hotel where Hasni played.

This year I lost my little boy. All my life turned upseide down because I loved him so much. He was very small and it was the most awful and tragic thing that ever happened to me. I still have not really recovered from his death. I want my laugh to come back. I want RAI to play and to sway in the breeze listening to it. I want to smile again. I am trying. Thats why I am starting this HASNI blog in English. Because I am dying inside from the death of my baby and I am sick mentally and I need to get my mind off the pain... Thats what RAI does, it helps you both remember and forget and it tells stories. I have travelled now to Algeria 3 times and I have 2 books on the market about Algeria and a youtube channel highlighting Algerian music anc culture. Dream the dream with me... if you are American or English reading this blog, I will help you understand RAI and who Hasni was so you will better understand the Algerian you know who loves them. Moroccans and Tunisians love Hasni as well because he was their brother and Hasni tells their stories as well. Remember, Oran borders the frontier of Morocco and there is a town there that Hasni visited called OUJDA that has its own brand of RAI. Sidi bel abbess, home to Rachid Baba Ahmed, a producer of RAI murdered in the mid 90s for producing rai and also home to RAINA RAI, Algeria's answer to Santana and Hendrix and everyone in between. Hasni's story is a sad and tragic one ...but he was and remains loved and his music is the soundtrack to many North Africans lives....Dream a dream of Oran with me, a crazy American who fell in love with RAI and then met Algeria along the way. I am suffering inside from the death of my son but I remember so many happy days and I want to be back there again. That is why I am reaching for my favorite music, to take me back.