This set of 14 original compositions and arrangements reflect’s the artist’s lifelong immersion in roots guitar music, from American blues to Malian finger-style to influences from Congo, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. You’ve never heard guitar music quite like this before…
LION SONGS RECORDS
Releases so far…
BANNING EYRE: BARE SONGS, VOL 1
Guitarist Banning Eyre synthesizes over 50 years of playing American and African guitar styles in 14 unique, acoustic original compositions and arrangements.
Voyagers: Chasing Light
African traditions meet jazz improvisation and acoustic bliss in this uplifting trio session, sweet and grooving, even without drums!
BOUBACAR “BADIAN” DIABATE: MANDE GUITAR
Stunning acoustic recording of finger-style guitar from Mali.
Lion Songs: Essential Tracks in the Making of Zimbabwe
Indispensable compilation from Thomas Mapfumo’s four-decade-plus career. Flagship release from Lion Songs Records, compiled by Banning Eyre.
Sadza with the Head of a mouse
Timbila with Chartwell Dutiro
Rich 2-cd collaboration with New York City’s Afrodelic band Timbila and the late master of Zimbabwean mbira, Chartwell Dutiro.
Lion Songs: Book and CD
Book
CD
Other Publications
In Griot Time
An American Guitarist in Mali
(Book + CD)
Guitar Atlas: Africa
Your Passport to a
New World of Music
(Book + CD)
Playing With Fire
Fear and Self-Censorhip in Zimbabwean Music
(Report—PDF)
Banning Eyre
Photo © Robert Ebstein
Banning Eyre is a writer, guitarist and producer, and the senior editor and producer of the public radio program Afropop Worldwide.
His latest initiative is the launch of Lion Songs Records, an independent label dedicated to uplifting overlooked, mostly acoustic music from the African universe. June 2021 sees the release of Boubacar “Badian” Diabate’s Mande Guitar, a showcase recording of finger-style Malian guitar.
He is the author of Lion Songs:Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe, In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali, Playing with Fire: Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music, and Guitar Atlas: Africa, and the co-author of AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music. Eyre is a contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and his writing has been published in Billboard, Guitar Player, Salon, the Boston Phoenix, College Music Journal, Option, The Beat, Folk Roots, Global Rhythm, and other publications. He has also performed and recorded with Thomas Mapfumo.