BY SIPHOSETHU MABUZA
MANZINI – For Dusty & Stones, country music has never simply been about cowboy hats and guitars. It has been a language through which two cousins from Mooihoek have told stories of home, travelled the world and carved out a place for Eswatini in a genre with deep roots far beyond Africa.
The duo of Gazi “Dusty” Simelane and Linda “Stones” Msibi is now set to bring that journey to Vuvulane Sports Ground when they join the Simunye Fest line-up from October 23 to 25.
The cousins have been making music together since 2005, building their identity around country music while drawing from the rural environment in which they grew up. Their first album, Mooihoek Country Fever, followed in 2009 and went on to earn them the Best Country Music Artists/Group award in Eswatini on three occasions.
Their music later travelled beyond Eswatini, with songs such as Ride With Me and Mkhulu Welfu gaining attention in Ireland after two Irish radio DJs discovered their work in 2015.
But it was their journey into the heartland of country music that pushed their story onto an even bigger stage. They travelled to the United States to record in Nashville and compete in a Texas country music competition, a journey captured in the documentary Dusty & Stones.
In 2023, the cousins reached another major milestone when they made their Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville. So, what can Simunye Fest attendees expect? A Dusty & Stones set is likely to bring the storytelling at the centre of their music to life, with the pair combining vocals and guitars in a country sound that carries traces of the Swati experiences that shaped them.
Their international journey has not taken them away from home. If anything, it has given audiences elsewhere a reason to listen to the stories they grew up with.
At Simunye Fest, the cousins return to a local stage with a musical history that has already taken them from Mooihoek to Nashville making their appearance one for festivalgoers who want to hear a distinctly Eswatini story told through country music.
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