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Compilation assembled to promote the first WOMAD Festival ((WOMAD stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance) held at Shepton Mallet, Somerset, UK, 1982-07-16, 1982-07-17 & 1982-07-18. WOMAD Festivals continue still even at the time I compiled this playlist in 2022. It started off nearly bankrupting Peter Gabriel, but his mates in Genesis put on a one-off show with him leading them through their Gabriel-era material to recoup his losses a few months later. I had the CD version which was a bit shorter to allow it to be a single disc. It was called "The Best of Music and Rhythm". Songs like Zuu-Waa, Pengosekan, Ramayana Monkey Chant Excerpt, Noor Azli Chamkia, Sudurum Kumbosora, Mkazi Wa Mulomo, and Persian Love were not included on this CD. Be that what it may, this was one of the first World Music albums I had ever heard, let alone purchased. I was becoming a huge Peter Gabriel fan and having found out about his organization of this festival got me interested. The drum group Ekome had appeared on his 4th album (called "Security" in the US and really the first PG album I ever owned) on the amazing song "The Rhythm of the Heat" so I was sure I'd enjoy their track as well as those by Gabriel & Pete Townshend. The rest of the artists were "new" to me, except I knew Byrne from the Talking Heads but had never heard his solo work. Two of my favorite tracks feature L. Shankar (or simply Shankar), the Indian violinist: Peter Gabriel's "Across the River" and Shankar & Bill Lovelady's "Himalaya". Shankar recorded on some of Gabriel's subsequent albums and toured with him. I saw them on the "Us" tour and really enjoyed Shankar's double-necked violin work on songs like "Blood of Eden" & "Love to Be Loved". Other standouts on the CD to me were XTC, The English Beat (yeah, yeah - not exactly World Music, but they were new to me), Prince Nico Mbarga, Mighty Sparrow, & Pete Townshend's weirdly experimental "Ascension Two". I just wanted to make this playlist available with all the recordings I found on YouTube to make it easier to experience the whole thing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the years!