About Lion Songs Records
It all started when…
Banning Eyre published his fourth book, Lion Songs, The Music That Made Zimbabwe in 2015. Despite solid reviews, a nice buzz in the Zimbabwe music community, and a Society for Ethnomusicology book award, the book has not exactly been a blockbuster sales-wise.
BUT, the accompanying CD, Lion Songs: Essential Tracks in the Making of Zimbabwe, has continued to sell robustly month after month, year after year, mostly in downloads, all over the world.
That success inspired Eyre to pursue a long-held goal of launching an independent record label dedicated to the music he loves most. The label will release mostly acoustic, mostly African music not available on other platforms.
The June, 2021, release of Boubacar “Badian” Diabate’s Mande Guitar is volume one of what will be an ongoing series of recordings by master guitarists from Africa. No single release so far better captures the label’s aesthetic—intimate, soulful, and mesmerising.
The label will also release music by groups Eyre has performed with, including the Afrodelic band Timbila, and the trad-folk-jazz trio Voyagers. And there will be releases of Eyre’s own work as well.
The journey begins here…