Memories of the Legends, Tunes of Eritrea – QieNit TV Talk Show
Yemane G.Micheal “Barya”
After a great popular start with “Wedebat Adey” in early 1970s, he laid low for more than a decade. Singles and unpublished albums abound in late 70s and early 80s. As his ‘Guitar only’ songs tell us, deep in the artistic mines, he was excavating and refining songs and lyrics that dazzled us for decades to come. Anyone who has listened his ‘Guitar only’ albums (around 5 in number) can learn a lot about his vulnerabilities, darkest fears and mixing of ‘memory and desires’.
They are the most personal of all of his outputs. These unedited, unpolished songs reveal the artist as none of his later more popular songs could ever have done. They reveal the sensitive, introspective, brooding, but courageous and deeply wise and kind soul that Barya was. Few artists bare their hearts and minds open through art as Barya did. The songs can be taken more as memoirs of that turbulent time.
They explore the nature of fate, the existential angst, philosophical musings, political and romantic themes. ‘Nay Meqabir B’stotey’, ‘Baburey Buburey, chekan Amora’ ‘Eda entehalewe’ are some unheralded, faded songs that few from the next generation have heard. If there were a word that sum his ‘Guitar’ days, it would be poignancy.
