Missing You: Vusi Mahlasela and "Everytime"

Today's random song is about missing someone, and longing for that person. Vusi Mahlasela, from South Africa, sings of a lover or an ex-lover who now walks under "cold, northern skies," contrasting that with the image of his lover walking by a river, under a setting red sun, his lover burning the dusk with beauty.

We long, often for those who are not with us, those who have been taken away from us for one reason or another. Perhaps the separation is necessitated by job and career, or by forces beyond each of our control. Perhaps the separation is not physical but emotional or mental, as for example my mom's dementia sometimes makes her a different person and I long for the one I knew for so many years. Sometimes we mandate the separation because of a dispute or because of another person's troubles that threaten to bring turmoil to our lives, yet we still miss the person amidst the conflict. And we long for a past that we whitewash, forgetting the difficult times so that only the good times remain, and that person walks in beauty and light and all we ever did was laugh and love.

It's human nature to long, and as we move through time to wax melancholic on that which is in the past because it gains a patina that the raw experience of the present just doesn't have. I often look back to the past, even to some times that were personally very hard and full of hurt, and even the bad times don't seem like they were as bad as they actually were. And the good times...the edges blur and they seem even better.

Sometimes called "The Voice of South Africa" for his work in African folk music, Vusi Mahlasela served as an inspiration for the anti-apartheid movement with songs that focused on freedom, forgiveness and reconciliation. He has collaborated with musicians such as Dave Matthews, Josh Groban and Taj Mahal (who produced his latest album), performed at many famous live concert events such as Live 8 and Live Earth, and sang for Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration in London. ITV used one of his songs as their theme song for their World Cup coverage in South Africa, and he also performed at the South Africa World Cup kickoff concert. This song, Everytime, is from his 2007 CD Guiding Star - that album garnered him Best Male Artist in the South Africa Music Awards. The video looks like it was shot on cell phone as he performed for a Virginia radio station, but the sound is very good.