# Ai Du guitar solo > The guitar solo on Ai Du by Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder (1994) starts at about 2:00. Watch from the solo, plus the story and gear. Canonical URL: Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder, 1994. Solo by *Ali Farka Touré*. Touré's rolling picking pattern here is often compared to the hill-country blues of North Mississippi. Ai Du is a showcase for Ali Farka Touré's rolling, repetitive picking, and it is often compared to the hill-country blues of North Mississippi. His pattern loops steadily, with small variations in accent and pitch that keep it alive over the song's length. The groove has a quality that anyone familiar with that trance-like Mississippi style will recognise instantly, though Touré always insisted on his own roots. The track is a strong argument for how deeply guitar traditions can echo across oceans. Listen for the way the bass notes and melody share a single, continuous pattern, the thumb and fingers working together as if two guitarists were playing at once. Ai Du by Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder is featured in our Desert Blues (#11) list. The solo is played by Ali Farka Touré and the song was released in 1994. ## In our lists - [The Greatest Desert Blues Guitar Songs](https://greatestsolos.com/list/desert-blues/) — #11 - [The Best Ali Farka Touré Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/ali-farka-toure-guitar-solos/) — #5 - [Top 20 Guitar Solos of 1994](https://greatestsolos.com/list/best-guitar-solos-1994/) — #13 ## Sources ### Who played the guitar solo on Ai Du? Ali Farka Touré played the solo on Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder's Ai Du (1994). --- GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)