Region: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Music description
The song is from a brazilian band callet “O Rappa”, and it’s a mix of alternative rock, hip hop and rap rock. As far as I can hear and see it got guitar, bass, drums, additional percussion and keyboard or sampler, sorry I’m not sure. This band’s songs are very “city like”, and when you lisen to it it’s very easy to understand why. The rhythm itself makes you imagine a very busy, big town and the different people that live there in the streets. So it kind of describs the metropolitan cities of the Brazilian southeast, wich is the heart of the country, although it’s only one part of the culture.

Only the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQOAvDulN-Q&feature=related

Live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwdfR8NFcB8&feature=related

Lyrics description
The lyrics are full of willpower and it speaks in name of the workers, the people that are in these towns everyday trying to make a living for themselfs and for their families. About people here that don’t have time for themselfs, time to try sometinhg new for their lives, or time to persue a dream. They sometimes have to bring food for their work, and walk around with no money on their pocket. It is said in the lyrics too that these people “don’t walk where they like to walk, but in here you can’t run, everybody touch everybody” (meaning that, because of the hurry and small places, people dash eathother all the time). Then it is mentioned the “minhoca de metal”, wich is how some people call the subway, a very used means of transportation in those big cities. They still say that “the space is short (small), almost a cural” (cural is the place where oxen and cows are maintained).
Anyway, that is a song that I think express the reality of the big urban centers here. The band have these lyrics that say a lot about the social live, and it’s critical. If you are looking for something different I will be glad to help. But I wanted to show that, in my opinium, something like samba it’s not exactly what represents the country nowadays.

Lyrics:
http://vagalume.uol.com.br/o-rappa/rodo-cotidiano.html

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http://ot006.urj.net/files/hebrew/V%27shamru.pdf

To see the song in Hebrew as well as transliterated.

Song name: The song is called V’Shamru which itself is not English, just the transliterated version of the Hebrew word.
Region: This is a traditional song for Jews. There are issues with pronunciation between different ethnic Jewish populations, but in general Sephardi pronunciation is accepted as the “correct” one, but you can hear Ashkenazim as well as Ethiopian, and Yemenite as well. Ladinos would probably use the Sephardi pronunciation as well.

Music description: Many times this is sung/chanted a Capella as accompaniment is not always available.
Here is a link to it being played on a Lyre which would certainly have been used at some point in our history.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=30329014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGjrDCiIaco

This above is poor quality audio but it shows how this can be played/sung by a gathering of musicians and Jews.
Lyrics description
“The People of Israel shall keep Shabbat, observing Shabbat throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. It is a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel. For in six days Adonai made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day G-d ceased from work and was refreshed.”

—Those are the lyrics. Shabbat is very important to Jews. The most important thing we have. More than anything else, keeping Shabbat has sustained us a people for all time.

Here is a more typical arrangement and how you would more often see this song done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4IkjzI2VL0&feature=related

And perhaps a better example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbiWlLUHoDg