Mutoko Releases Third Album
United Kingdom-based gospel musician John Mutoko has every reason to be ecstatic after bouncing back with a third album Mwari Vakatendeka which is doing well on the market.
The album, which was recorded at Shed Studios and is being marketed and distributed by the Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC), has already sold more than 3 000 copies in a week — a sizeable number for an upcoming artist. Better known as “Mr Fantastic” by his fans, Mutoko’s album opens with the track Shumba YavaJudha (The Lion of Judah) which is a divine explanation of who Jesus is. He sings ‘Musamujairira ndiye She werugare’ — asserting Jesus as a saviour.
The second song Tsvakai Jesu Murarame has proved the most popular on the album as it occupies the sixth position on Radio Zimbabwe’s Top 20 hit parade. The track explores how families are ripped apart following ill advice from parents who are supposed to be exemplary. The bottom line in the song is that parents should teach their children the Christian way of life in order to eschew the devil’s machinations.
Mutoko also looks in the negative on people who use juju (traditional potions) on their relatives so that they do not get married. “It doesn’t matter if I am talking about my real tetes (aunts). The most important thing is I am preaching the gospel through singing,” Mutoko said. The universality of death is explored in the song Pasi Idandaro that reminds everyone - whether rich or poor - that they will die one day.
He said he was touched by the death of one of his friends who was also a college mate in Havana, Cuba who died after spending 10 years at university furthering his education — a feat that asserts the universality of death. He dedicated the song Mweya Wangu Chizorora on all who have departed highlighting how many die before they have achieved everything they would have been planning on earth. “Like Jeremiah (the Biblical prophet), I feel the fire burning in my bones and as long as I have breath in me I will sing the truth of the gospel unto death.
“I am the voice for the voiceless, I bring hope to the hopeless and I also bring encouragement to the discouraged. I sing the truth and its unfortunate some are not happy to see the truth being exposed,” said Mutoko.
Musandityire is centred more on Mutoko’s life. “But because I am an over comer who has been bought by the blood of Jesus don’t fear for me because the Lord will take me through,” he said. His previous albums include 1 Chronicles 4v10 and 1 in which the song Jabez had a very good reception. In this song, he encourages people to pray the prayer of Jabez so that their territories may be increased by the Almighty. Samuel 7v12 (Ebenezer) was the first album released in 2004 and the song Mwari Vachandivaraidza explains how Mutoko felt when he lost his mother in 1996 only to learn of her death after six moths.
The Valley of Dry Bones (fourth album) is expected to be released next year in August.
Via The Herald
