Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band

The Ghion sessions

Dahlak Band was the house band at the Ghion Hotel nightclub in Addis Ababa in 1978, and the sources we found describe it only through this one album. Hailu Mergia, born in 1946 in Debre Birhan, moved to Addis Ababa at 10, taught himself accordion at 14, joined an army music department and learned to read and write music. He formed or led the Walias Band, the house band at the Hilton, and told FACT he joined Dahlak in 1978 because I liked the way they did things musically. Dahlak played two nights a week for a younger, local crowd with soul and Amharic jams, while the Walias played to a mixed, upscale Hilton audience.

Wede Harer Guzo, meaning Journey to Harer, was recorded in 1978 at the Ghion during afternoon rehearsals over three days, according to Awesome Tapes From Africa. Mergia was preparing a follow-up to Tche Belew (1977), but his Hilton colleagues were busy recording with vocalists. It came out on cassette only through the Sheba Music Shop in Addis Ababa's Piazza district, which has since closed, and sold well, he says, but left no trace online. Awesome Tapes From Africa reissued it in June 2016 as its third Mergia release and first vinyl, restored by Jessica Thompson at Coast Mastering from his cassette, the only known source.

Walias toured the US in 1981, the first modern Ethiopian band to do so, with Mahmoud Ahmed; Mergia was one of four members who stayed and formed Zula Band. He later released Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument (1985), stopped performing in 1991 and opened a restaurant, and played full time again from 2018, with Lala Belu (2018) and Yene Mircha (2020). Tezeta (1975) was reissued in 2021 after a collector's dubbed tape reached Brian Shimkovitz in 2012. Wikipedia says the track "Anchin Kfu Ayinkash" passed 12 million streams as of 2025.