Your Daily Song Fix

Vusi Mahlasela, an African folk singer/songwriter, has performed on Warren Haynes’ Live at Bonnaroo release during the song “Soulshine”, and the Dave Matthews Band song, “Everyday”, from the album Everyday. I think the language of this song is Sesotho which is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. I think the title translates to “How will it be?” because Vusi says that right before he starts singing but the Sesotho to English translator only knew the word “na.”

The Alem-Girma band was formed in Ethiopia by Alèmayehu Eshété and Girma Bèyènè in 1972. It only lasted until 1974 when Mengistu Haile Mariam, the most influential member of a Communist military junta, led a coup against Emperor Haile Selassie. Addis Ababa’s nightlife died off under the rule of this military junta known as the Derg. I actually got a chance to meet Alèmayehu Eshété about a year ago when he played a local Ethiopian restaurant in the DC/VA area (see picture below).

Alèmayehu Eshété and I

This is Your Daily Song Fix’s 100th song! I hope everyone has been enjoying the music we have been posting. We have been getting great feedback from our listeners.

I would like to announce some improvements coming soon:

1. Radio: We will be posting a radio-style playlist so that you can simply hit play and listen to all the tunes we have posted.
2. Mixes: Want a good bedtime mix? How about workout mix? YDSF will be posting eclectic mixes for you to check out as well as links to download them to your computer and iPod.
3. Download Links: We will be posting download links with all songs available from Amazon or iTunes.
4. One Song Per Day: YDSF has been a little backed up but we promise to catch up and start posting one song per day. Sometimes the hold up is due to technical difficulties beyond our control
5. More rare songs: YDSF relies heavily on Grooveshark for posting music. Lately Grooveshark has made some great technological improvements that allow us to upload our extremely unheard of music that we can’t find on their site. This means better and more unknown music for you

In the spirit of providing more unknown music, here is an African tune you are sure to like.

So far we haven’t put up any African music. Cymande is a traditional sounding African and Calypso influenced Funk band from the 70’s. This awesome group has members from Guyana and Jamaica which help to explain their influences. Quick shout out to Sid Flax for turning me on to this band.