Saturday, October 24, 2009

Highlife Gospel


There is a very thin line between secular highlife and gospel music in Ghana. Typical highlife bands as the African Brothers, Yamoah's and even AB Crentsil's Sweet Talks recorded a lot of tracks that are definitely religious in nature. And as the popularity of gospel grew in the 1980's, some highlife musicians turned from secular to religious music. As i don't speak the language it is even harder for me to distinguish the two.
But here are 2 examples of highlife-gospel bands: Edward Kwasi Boateng's Band and Love Nortey's Happy Stars.

Happy Stars - Wano nsem pii
Kwasi Boateng's Band - Asem ato me

(Do i hear Kwabena Okai there among the Happy Stars? Unfortunately no cover..)