The Good Ones

A group of musicians from Kigali, the impoverished capital city of Rwanda, the Good Ones play a poignant, and raw form of folk music that relies on a minimalist setup of acoustic guitars, harmonies, and occasional hand percussion. Singing in the local dialect of their rustic farming region, they were discovered in 2010 by American producer Ian Brennan, who has helped the band record several albums including 2019's Rwanda, You Should Be Loved and 2022's Rwanda...You See Ghosts, I See Sky. Occasionally, they have collaborated with outside musicians like on 2025's Rwanda Sings with Strings, which featured a guest cellist and violinist. Original members Adrien Kazigira, Stany Hitimana, and Jeanvier Havugimana were all survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and turned to music as a healing process. Their debut album, Kigali Y' Izahabu, was recorded in one night and released in the late fall of 2010 by Dead Oceans (who donated a portion of the proceeds to various Rwandan humanitarian organizations). Kazigira wrote eight of the album's 12 songs. Played on two acoustic guitars -- one functioning as a bass (because it was missing its two top strings on the night the record was cut) -- they also employed harmony vocals and organic percussion. Essentially a field recording, Kigali Y' Izahabu was recorded and produced by Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Malawi Mouse Boys). Brennan returned to Rwanda several years later to help the Good Ones record a second collection. Released in 2015, Rwanda Is My Home added subtle elements like bass and hand percussion -- often in the form of the band's own farming tools -- to the group's sparse mix. By this point, the group's membership centered around the core duo of Kazigira and Havugimana with a new auxiliary member, Javan Mahoro, supplying harmonies and occasional instrumentation. Although recorded in a similar fashion on bandleader Kazigira's farm, the Good Ones' third album, RWANDA, You Should Be Loved, featured a bevy of outside collaborators that included Nels Cline (Wilco), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), and Joe Lally (Fugazi). Culled from over 40 songs Kazigira had written, it was released by the ANTI- label in 2019 and marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Brennan helped the Good Ones record a fourth album. Recorded once again on Kazigira's farm, Rwanda...You See Ghosts, I See Sky was as spare in tone as its predecessors, examining the bandmembers' individual stories even more deeply. Among the album's more hopeful love songs was Havugimana's plaintive and descriptive "My Son Has Special Needs, But There's Nowhere for Him to Go." For the group's fifth album, Brennan traveled back to Rwanda with cellist Gordon Withers and violinist Matvei Sigalov. As with previous Good Ones' sessions, the tracks were recorded entirely live, though this time accompanied by improvised string lines, adding a new emotional element to Kazigira's songs. Titled Rwanda Sings with Strings, the album was released in 2025 on the Glitterbeat label. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi