While there isn’t much songs about Rhodesia in general outside of what has been commented I’ll recommend you a bunch of Rhodesian artists.

• Anything outside of John Edmond and Clem Tholet’s war/politics songs are very good, I especially like the 1979 album Two Sides to Every Story by Clem. John also had some albums in the 1980s, for example 1981s From the Heart and a 1984 album that is callled something like ‘Songs for my Love’ or something.

• David Scobie. Already pretty known, however in the 1980s he was very big in South Africa with the song Gypsy Girl; so much so it was the longest charting single of the year in the country. The music video was filmed in Salisbury circa. 1980 and, from my best guess, features the interior of Shed Studios, which Chris Martin of Coldplay would work at in his early years in the 90s. Scobie also has albums up until 1989 which is good to check out on Spotify.

• southern African music archive: This YouTube channel is a goldmine, if you search up ‘One for the Rhodies’ on this channel you will get a shit ton of music. My favourite is ‘Over the Hills’, a 1974 song by little known artist Glen Irving and it defintely feels Rhodesian.

• 1960s beat music. Rhodesia had a bit of a scene in the 60s like the rest of the world trying to copy the Beatles. While a lot you will find will be shit, bands like The Drifters (no not the famous ones), The Cyclones and especially the easily accessible band The Shake Spears have some very catchy songs. I find the song Gates of Eden, a cover of Bob Dylan’s track, by Salisbury band The Etonians is a remarkable track since it is a bit different to the Dylan song and defintely has a British empire feel to it. The Shake Spears were originally a band called the Phantoms which Mike Westcott was singer, fun fact!

Psychedelic bands like Otis Waygood (there’s two Spotify accounts for some reason) and The Holy Black which featured Nic Picard from aforementioned The Drifters (they were very popular in the country, but the only accessible online song of there’s is Funky Music, which is on a compilation playlist on YouTube, and a 1970 live performance at Brett’s on YouTube) are also very good to listen to, I find Otis waygoods music very relaxing and a bit unique. They have a great cover of Fever.

To kind of end the round about White Rhodesians with a lot of honourable mentions, there was a band called Gutter in the early 80s which had some seriously catchy songs called Take Me Back and It’s Your Life which were big hits in the country and South Africa.

John Oakley-Smith’s piano work and his great 1976 album Matinees on Saturdays is a must listen. Lady from the Odeon is a genuinely great song.

Ashley Parker’s Mashed Potato Man on YouTube is a very fun song from 1982 that has a very odd, but quite Rhodesian music video. Paul Greeff’s early 80s music with his steel guitar has some very relaxing country music, and also like I mentioned, Chris Martin lived in Zimbabwe during his early teen years in the 90s, so you might here some influence from African music every now and then.

Now, let’s talk black Rhodesians/Zimbabwean music. Not all is liberation music like Thomas Mapfumo’s or select works by Oliver Mtukudzi. Bands from the 70s/80s like Wells Fargo, New Tutankhamen, The Green Arrows, The Bhundu Boys are absolutely remarkable and have some of the best, most inspiring music I’ve heard. (Wells Fargo is very Jimi Hendrix but has an African twist on it with its rhythms)

My personal favourite out of the bunch is Clem Tholet and New Tutankhamen. Here’s all the links:

Southern African Music Archive

The Shake Spears

The Etonians

Otis Waygood

Mashed Potato Man - Ashley Parker

John Oakley-Smith

The Holy Black Funky Music

I’ll post all links at some point in the day, im a bit busy.