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In his home country of South Africa, singer/songwriter Vusi Mahlasela is fondly known as "The Voice." His fellow countrywoman, the writer Nadine Gordimer, once said about him: "Vusi Mahlasela sings as a bird does: in total response to being alive." Apart from his remarkable songwriting talent, Mahlasela is in fact blessed with one of the most remarkable voices in contemporary popular music. Vusi Mahlasela grew up listening to people singing in his grandmother's shebeen (an informal pub in South African townships) and taught himself while playing the guitar. As a teenager, he started writing his own songs with lyrics of social significance. In 1981, he joined the poetry group Ancestors of Africa, who were on the watch list of the Apartheid regime. His joining of the Congress of South African Writers in 1988 marks a new quality in his artistical maturing process. Besides starting a collaboration with South African dub poet Lesego Rampolokeng, he explored South African jazz and traditiona...