In Harare, Zimbabwe, hard times in the 1990s never dampened the public appetite for new musical stars. So despite economic hardship, drought, AIDS, scarcity of instruments and equipment and competition from Congolese and South African stars, new talent has emerged year after year. The most significant artist to emerge in the '90s was Leonard Dembo and his band the Barura Express. Slight and unassuming, Dembo touched audiences with his high, clear voice and lyrics in the Oliver Mutukudzi tradition, celebrating daily life. Dembo became a full-time musician in 1985. The name he chose for his group, Barura, means non-stop, and the group's trajectory lived up to the idea. Dembo built his audience steadily, but his big breakthrough came with his 1992 hit "Chitekete." Written years earlier during a break from his cattle herding chores, the songs paraphrases rural Shona sayings. It became so popular that for a while, it seemed every bride requested that it be played at her wedding. Sticking with the spare, guitar band sound, Dembo has a clear hit-making knack. "If a sound comes into my head three times," he says, "then I know it's a record." The Barura Express perfected the so-called Zimbabwe rumba sound, with hard-hitting rhythms and sweetly melodic arrangements for two electric guitars and bass. Sadly, Dembo himself became a victim of AIDS in 1997. But he left a rich body of recordings behind, most of which international audiences have never heard.