To all of you non-Arabic speakers, I picked three Iraqi folkloric songs performed by
Ilham Al-Madfaie who pioneered mixing the guitar with Iraqi music. I highly recommend them especially the first minute of the first video. The combination of the guitar with classic Iraqi tunes is sublime.
خطار Guests [We have guests today]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jthl4IwXpE مالي شغل بالسوق I Don't Need to Go to the Market [but I go nonetheless only to see her]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf2roER5ilgفوق النخل Above the Palm Trees [Iraqi idiom meaning having great luck and being happy]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh0JafhXqK8@ Hassan, if you're reading this, I want to know if you understood any of the songs. Don't expect you to, Iraqi dialect is a different language from Egyptian. So I found different versions of these songs with transcripts. I'd be curious to know if you can decipher the lyrics !!
Guests [with Arabic transcripts]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6SnGANUXDII Don't Need to Go to the Market [with Arabic transcripts]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hF2xXo1oTk