Banning Eyre has played guitar since 1968 and written about international music, especially African guitar styles, since 1988. He comments and reports on music for National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and contributes regularly to The Boston Phoenix, Guitar Player, Rhythm, Folk Roots, The Beat, CD Now, CMJ, New Music Monthly, and the Music Hound and All Music Guides. He has traveled extensively in Africa and has produced many programs for the public radio series Afropop Worldwide. In 1995, Eyre co-authored AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music with Sean Barlow. Eyre's book focussed on Malian guitar styles, In Griot Time, An American Guitarist in Mali, is just out on Temple University Press.

Eyre has played guitar professionally since the mid '70s, working in genres as diverse as jazz, flamenco, dance-rock and reggae. For the past ten years, he has specialized in guitar styles from Africa, playing in a series of Zairean soukous bands in Boston, including Sankai, in the West African folk ensemble Cora Connection, and recently in Glamour Boys de Mbare, a New York based group that combines traditional mbira music from Zimbabwe with guitar. During his travels, Eyre has performed with The Super Rail Band of Bamako and Sali Sidibe in Mali, and with Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited in Zimbabwe. He plays on two Thomas Mapfumo albums, Chimurenga 98 (Anonymous Web, 1998), and Chimurenga Explosion (Anonymous Web 2000). A song he created with Mapfumo and his band in 1998 became a hit on Zimbabwean radio. Eyre also played on a track on Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate's Kulanjan (Hannibal 1999), which was voted Folk Roots "Album of the Year" in the UK.

Eyre teaches African guitar styles, both privately and in workshops at Tribal Sounds in New York City. In January 2000, Eyre brought Bonnie Raitt to Mali for 3 weeks to introduce her to musicians and the musical scene he wrote about in his book, In Griot Time.