http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.49610&rws=%2Fvusi-mahlasela%2Fmusic-videos.rssBorn into a poor South African family in 1965, Vusi Mahlasela's story reads like a grandfather's artfully exaggerated hard-luck tale -- only his is true. He really did build his first guitar out of fishing line and tin when he was just a kid. Reared in Mamalodi Township, Mahlasela experienced the final ugly days of apartheid. He joined the apartheid protest movement in his teens, while simultaneously developing his skills as a singer and songwriter. As a regular presence at protests and funerals, Mahlasela crossed the apartheid government repeatedly; police routinely seized his writings and would jail him intermittently. After apartheid ended, Mahlasela began recording and performing regularly, but it wasn't until the release of the 2003 documentary film <I>Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony</i> that a wider world audience was introduced to him. That year he signed to fellow South African Dave Matthews' ATO Records, which released <I>The Voice</i>, a compilation of his best songs to date. In 2007 Mahlasela returned to the international stage with <i>Guiding Star</i>. Mahlasela's delicate guitar playing and uncannily soulful voice guide songs that tack between indigenous South African styles and a global singer-songwriter tradition. - Sarah BardeenAfricaen720Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:45:04 -0800 http://static.realone.com/rotw/images/logo_rhapsody_113x22.gif http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.49610&rws=%2Fvusi-mahlasela%2Fmusic-videos.rss Born into a poor South African family in 1965, Vusi Mahlasela's story reads like a grandfather's artfully exaggerated hard-luck tale -- only his is true. He really did build his first guitar out of fishing line and tin when he was just a kid. Reared in Mamalodi Township, Mahlasela experienced the final ugly days of apartheid. He joined the apartheid protest movement in his teens, while simultaneously developing his skills as a singer and songwriter. As a regular presence at protests and funerals, Mahlasela crossed the apartheid government repeatedly; police routinely seized his writings and would jail him intermittently. After apartheid ended, Mahlasela began recording and performing regularly, but it wasn't until the release of the 2003 documentary film <I>Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony</i> that a wider world audience was introduced to him. That year he signed to fellow South African Dave Matthews' ATO Records, which released <I>The Voice</i>, a compilation of his best songs to date. In 2007 Mahlasela returned to the international stage with <i>Guiding Star</i>. Mahlasela's delicate guitar playing and uncannily soulful voice guide songs that tack between indigenous South African styles and a global singer-songwriter tradition. - Sarah Bardeen