Africa Tour

Sowing Seeds Of Bluegrass In Zimbabwe
The title used for this page is the phrase used by the promoters who booked my friend Larry Lashley and I to perform our music at various venues in Zimbabwe, Africa. I hope that they don’t mind that we played some cowboy music while we were there too!


In April and early May of 2000 my fiddle playing pal, Larry Lashley and I were invited to attend the Harare, Zimbabwe, International Festival of Arts (HIFA) where we were joined by artists and performers of all types from all over the world. We traveled to Africa at the request of the Ambassador’s wife who had heard Larry play his fiddle when he was here the year before, visiting his sister and her husband, Larry Folley,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Foley) while we stayed in Africa.

While there we performed at indoor and outdoor concerts and we were treated to a photo safari while we were recuperating from jet-lag and waiting for our instruments to arrive. We also did a little music exchange program with a music class from a small high school in the heart of one of the most impoverished parts of Harare. Given that the economy of Zimbabwe is one of the worst in the world and that the country is ruled by a tyrannical dictator, Robert Mugabe, we didn’t know what to expect when we visited with the local citizens or what we might find when we exchanged music performances with the school kids.

The following series of music videos and African wildlife videos begins with Orange Blossom Special performed in the music room of a Harare high school. The students were bussed to school on one of their days off in order to be with us. Some of the following performances were done by the students and some by Larry Lashley and I. All that are shown on this page were taken during the April/May, 2000 trip to Zimbabwe, Africa. We found the students to be highly intelligent, highly talented, and delightful to be with despite their plight of trying to survive in a country that while blessed with a temperate climate, rich in tillable soil and natural resources, and populated by citizens who are willing to work to make their lives and those of their children better, suffers one of the highest inflation rates (over 1000%) year after year. The extreme poverty is pervasive across the entire nation and the AIDS epidemic is evident everywhere you look in the highly populated areas; except in the eyes of those who have managed to avoid it. There you find love and lots of hope for a better future. God only knows how to provide them with what they need. We hope that in some small way we helped them keep the spark burning that helps them hold fast to their faith and that we brought a few moments of happiness and hope into their lives. I wish we could have accommodated their request to bring them all back to the USA with us but at least we were able to record their performances and make them available for all to see.

Harare, Zimbabwe High School Boys – Marimba Quartet
The students and faculty at this school have somehow managed to keep the education program going despite an extreme lack of financial resources. The four different sized marimbas being played in this video were not purchased from a music store, they are hand made from hardwood and other materials gathered in nature.


Amazing Grace
Larry plays this song with a lot of feeling. Unfortunately the music video lost some pieces along the way between when it was being played and filmed in African and when it finally got converted from analog to digital. You may notice that several other songs from our Africa tour have suffered the same fate. I wish there was something we could do to fix them but there’s not; short of going back to Africa and starting all over. Come to think of it, that’s not too bad of idea!


Marimba Trio
These young men are GROOVIN’!


The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Sometimes when we play this song it seems like Larry is trying to set his fiddle on fire with that bow!


Vimbainashe Zimuto – Plays Her Mbira and Sings “Bonga”
As you can see by her smile, this pretty and talented young woman was very shy about performing. Even though Larry and I could not understand a word she was singing, we were spellbound by her beautiful voice and her exceptional talent for playing the mbira. Her mbira, like the school’s marimbas, was hand made out of locally available materials; hard wood for the sound board and resonator and pieces of scrap metal that had been salvaged and shaped into the chimes which are clamped tightly into place on the soundboard. Each note is played by the musician plucking the chimes with their nimble thumbs and fingers.


Grand closing by the Harare High School Choir Singing “Glorify!”
It would be an understatement to say that Larry and I were impressed by these kids talent and enthusiasm. With the economy being what it is in Zimbabwe and with these young adults coming from homes where there probably isn’t any running water, they attend class dressed in hand-me-down, many times mended uniforms that may not fit perfectly but which were all spotlessly clean and pressed. The kids were respectful towards each other and towards their teachers. It is obvious that their hearts are full of love and their souls brimming with music and talent. There are life lessons to be learned here that should be very beneficial to students, faculty, administrators, and parents living and working in societies that are so much more affluent, if only we knew how to carry this mentality, attitude and discipline back to the USA with us….


The beauty of Zimbabwe combined with the warmth and kindness of her people will remain in our minds and hearts forever. But, as we were sent there to do, in our parting moments we continued to do our best to tie our separate parts of the world together through music. Here Larry and I have one last go at Boil That Cabbage Down set to the backdrop of video clips of African wildlife we were able to record while we were there. The little grass thatched hut in the first part of this clip is actually a shelter for an armed guard who patrolled the grounds of our host, the late Laurence Foley, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Foley) while we stayed in Africa.

Farewell To Africa