In Zimbabwe, if you criticize President Robert Mugabe publicly, you could end up in a whole lot of trouble. Such is the case of singer Thomas Mapfumo. So strong were his critiques of Mugabe, that he left Zimbabwe in fear for his personal security.

Mapfumo now lives in Oregon -- and he continues to rail against Mugabe's un-democratic ways. It's hard to fathom that -- at one point -- Mapfumo and Mugabe saw the world through the same revolutionary glasses. A newly released collection of Mapfumo's early songs takes us back to that point in history.

It was the late sixties and early seventies. Zimbabwe was still called Rhodesia. The country was in a sort of limbo -- between its British colonial past and full independence. It was a time when pride was swelling across the African continent.

In many countries, culture ministries tapped into that pride by funding home-grown pop bands But in Zimbabwe, one of the most important bands was funded not by the government -- but by a copper mine. The white owners of the Mangura Copper Mine were charitable types.

They believed their mineworkers needed some entertainment after they got out of a long shift in the bowels of the earth. And management hired a musician they knew, the son of a security guard at the mine, to put such a band together.

Trumpet player Daram Karanga hired four friends and colleagues, including singer and drummer Thomas Mapfumo. The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, or HCR, was born.

At first HCR played a lot of rumba, cha cha cha, and soul covers. The band members saw that the white management at the mine liked those tunes. But the African mineworkers didn't.

Thomas Mapfumo decided to do some mining of his own -- digging into southern African roots music for musical inspiration. And he got his HCR band mates to go along. The so-called "traditional Zim style" was the trick that got the mine workers on the dance floor. HCR's popularity grew.

They put on gigs around Rhodesia. They recorded a now well-known studio session, from which many of the tracks on the newly released collection of material is drawn. In 1974, the band won a major national talent contest.

In respect for the mineworkers in Mangura, many of whom came to Rhodesia for work from neighboring Malawi, HCR recorded this traditional Malawian tune.

It's called Alikulila.

The band members in HCR worked hard for their living. But some in the management at the Mangura Copper Mine felt they were overpaid and pushed to have the band's wages cut. Thomas Mapfumo was the first one to complain. He was fired, and so began the slow demise of the Hallelujah Chicken Run band.

On his own, Mapfumo became a more political musician. He sang songs in the local language Shona. The white government didn't understand the lyrics. But Mapfumo's tunes were fomenting revolt -- one urged mothers to send their sons to war against the whites. He called his style "chimurenga" or struggle.

Meanwhile, HCR had a couple more years left in them.

"Take One" is the title of the just re-released collection of songs by the now defunct Hallelujah Chicken Run Band.

You may be wondering about the group's name.

Taking care of poultry at the mine's chicken coop, was Thomas Mapfumo's day job. It would be one of the last times Mapfumo would have to resort to manual labor. His rootsy Shona songs would soon be his calling card.

And Mapfumo's music would play a role in flipping Rhodesia out of the colonial era and into the country that is today called Zimbabwe.