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Vanaand Gaan die Volkies Koring Suy

Shimon Ash
Audio
Vanaand Gaan die Volkies Koring Suy
Here, he sings of a young girl who tells all of her suitors to pick a special flower for her from the "wait-a-little-bit bush." By the end, there are two lovers waiting for her by the bush and a third lover waiting to wait by the bush. Shimon Ash was born in Willomore, a small sheep farming town in the dry southern part of South Africa, called the Karroo. He was the youngest in a family of eight, with six sisters and one brother. His father owned a sheep farm and a small general store. Shimon’s home had no electricity or other city conveniences. Willomore had no movie theater or even recreational center. Singing was one of many recreational activities among the farmers and their children. They sang at picnics, at work, and at school. The songs on this album are the songs that Shimon grew up with; songs that he sung, and that were sung to him. There were few families that spoke English in Willomore. Many spoke dialects of Zulu and Bantu, while the white people spoke Afrikaans. Until Shimon and his family moved to Johannesburg, the only English he spoke was that which he learned in school. At the age of 23, Shimon left South Africa for Europe and then for Israel, where he lived on a kibbutz and learned many Israeli folk songs. He later joined the Israeli army and began to sing at various army camps, singing and strumming Afrikaans, English, and Israeli folk songs. Before leaving Israel, Kol Yisrael, the Israeli radio station, offered him a singing contract. After years in Israel, Ash returned to South Africa where he continued to to sing and perform. Later, he moved to Montreal, where he did a great deal of performing; touring children’s camps in the summer, and singing (in three languages) to a variety of audiences in the winter.