The Rough Guide to Desert Blues

The Rough Guide To Desert Blues is a world music compilation album originally released in 2010. Desert blues refers to the music of the Mandinka and related nomad groups of the Sahara, who perform a style of music considered the root of the American Blues genre. This was first popularized in the West by Ali Farka Touré and has more recently been carried by a new wave of artists such as Tinariwen.

Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, the album contains two discs: an overview of the genre on Disc One, and a "bonus" Disc Two highlighting Etran Finatawa. Disc One features nine Malian tracks, two Sahrawi, and one each from Mauritania and Niger. The compilation was produced by Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network.