Since they backed up Paul Simon on his 1986 "Graceland" album, the African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo have appeared just about everywhere. It's telling that when I first hear their distinctive harmonies, the first thing that comes to mind is that LifeSavers commercial they did.

But you won't hear any product placement on the group's new album, "Raise Your Spirit Higher," or when they appear in concert at the Madison Civic Center's Oscar Mayer Theatre, 211 State St., at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $18 and $24 and available through the Civic Center box office, 258-4141.

The album's release coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the fall of apartheid in South Africa, and Ladysmith retains its goals of spreading messages of hope, brotherhood and unity to a troubled world. Lyrics on the album urge South Africa to maintain its moral fortitude in the midst of sweeping changes.

Some of that musical healing has been directed inward to the band as well - founding member Joseph Shabalala's wife was murdered in 2002, and the closing track on the album is a song written and performed by Shabalala's grandsons as a tribute to her.

It was in 1964 that Shabalala, a Zulu who turned to Christianity, first created a singing group that fused traditional Zulu singing with the gospel he heard in church. Although some of the roster has changed over the years, and South Africa has changed dramatically in that time, Ladysmith stays true to that original vision.