Meeting Tom Paxton at the Edmonton Folk Festival

Alan meeting folk legend Tom Paxton at CKUA

Mike Stack in Calgary

Mike Stack, Jane Hawley, Tim Leacock & Steve Pineo

Vusi Mahlasela

Vusi Mahlasela is known in South Africa simply as ‘The Voice‘. He’s the great songwriter of South Africa, writing and singing in six languages including Zulu and English. The writer Nadine Gordimer said of him: ‘Music was at the heart of the struggle for freedom – Vusi was there. Music is at the heart of the reconstruction – Vusi’s music is here to stir and delight us. He’s a national treasure!’ Vusi grew up in the township of Mamelodi: his style was forged in the struggle for freedom, and since then he’s combined traditional African rhythms and the grit and passion of his own writing, never losing faith in the future of the new South Africa.

Vusi stunned British audiences in 2004 when he sold out his own concert at the City of London Festival.  He then toured nationally as a special guest of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  He was at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2005.

Vusi Mahlasela & Lark Clark

Lark Clark host of World Spinning on CKUA radio & Vusi