ART HEATLIE EN SY KERELS, Marie Sarais, 1963

Over the past 30 years of record collecting  I have found records from France, Peru, Mexico but never ever from Southern Rhodesia! To be honest, I didn´t even know where exactly Southern Rhodesia  is, or rather was . It´s located next to South Africa and now called Zimbabwe. The front cover even has a little sticker in the upper left corner from the shop where it was purchased, Radiocity of Salisbury. Salisbury is now Harare, the largest city and capital of  Zimbabwe.

The Dutch owner of the house we stayed at in Portugal was crazy about this record when I showed it to him.  Sarie Marais is a  famous traditional South African songs and was also well-known in Holland in the 50´s. Afrikaans, the language these songs are sung in,  is a daughter language of  Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects. Being in his late 60´s, it sure inspired a feeling of nostalgia in the owner of our house.  The Dutch Instro Rock Classics blog has a cool post on the origin of the song and also a collection of much better rock´n´roll versions of Sarie Marais.

This record is a mix of  South-african songs, called Boeremusik. It sounds like it was recorded at a camp fire or in a barn. Whatever it is about, it´s my first record from Southern Rhodesia!

ART HEATLIE EN SY KERELS, Marie Sarais, 1963

ART HEATLIE EN SY KERELS, Die ou Kalahari/Tahiti, 1963

ART HEATLIE EN SY KERELS, Daar kom die Alibama/Hiers ek weer/Bokkie, 1963

ART HEATLIE EN SY KERELS, Jan Pierewiet/O Brandewyn laat my staan/Daar doer in die Bosveld, 1963