He fled his native country with his group, the Walias Band, in 1981 and now drives a cab in Washington DC, in which he also composes. It’s rare that one of his customers realises that their driver is an Ethiopian musical legend, the keyboardist and accordionist of the Walias Band, one of the most popular groups from the country’s 70s golden age. “We were an equal band,” Mergia says. Shortly after their first tour in the US, the original Walias Band broke up. “The accordion and the Rhodes [piano] were old, the Moog was a new instrument,” Mergia says.

Source: Ethiopian News March 01, 2018 13:23 UTC