Want to see me singing songs with the kids in Trench Town, as I described it? This is one of the files that was too big to upload in Jamaica.
Now my host Ricardo isn’t world’s steadiest camera (phone) man, but I am grateful he was able capture this moment in nearly its entirety. It would be fun to go back to Trench Town with a real film crew and some more musicians and play for these wonderful kids in one of the most fabled yet impoverished communities in the history of modern music.
Boy did I take a risk by even going back to Jamaica. I left with not nearly enough to get by, let alone do what I went there to do. But sometimes you have to hope for miracles. Not too often though. But sometimes you have to wish upon a star.
I got contacted today about show offers in Jamaica and Europe because I rolled that dice. The truth was, the dice were loaded. But I had to still roll. I want to roll those loaded dice down 3rd Street and help these kids out when I go back, with a little help from my friends.
None of us can really do this on our own. I had Anthony Red Rose and BJ DjSticky behind me. I had folks like Matt Cyphert, James K. Byler, and Tara Mahon Eckstrom quietly helping me over the years to make sure my records with The Staxx Brothers may someday go GOLD.
Do not lose faith my friends. I got a long way to go but this was my appearance on the REAL Sesame Street.
So here is my big announcement about the GIFT ROOTS RADIO 96.1 FM and I put together the Seattle reggae scene and beyond.
In this video my good friend and mentor Selecta Ras Isachar explains the plan we came up with to get Northwest Reggae artists on the airplay and discovered by the good people of Kingston, Jamaica.
I am going to help organize a concert in Seattle that benefits the non profit radio station in Kingston. The artists that participate are going to submit their best song that they feel would best fit the stations Roots Reggae format. Then the amazing and well connected selectors are going to listen to each band, and each band will get some Airplay on Roots FM.
Getting played on Kid Hops’ Positive Vibrations show is a dream come true. So what does it mean to have my friends in Kingston play you and big up you on the coolest Roots Reggae station on planet Earth at the heart of the Reggae Empire.
The bands help raise some funds so the station can do important things like say install a turnkey go pro video system so the station can broadcast musical guest performances LIVE. When I did a three song set live on the radio and there was no video to match the simultaneous terrestrial and internet broadcast, the idea was born right there on the air with Mr. ISACHAR.
Now I am down to down to organize these nights in other Northwest Cities, if the reggae bands and the general interest is there. And if you are across the country and around the World, you can organize a concert and I can help give you a proper connection to the station and its wonderful management.
This station does great things as a non profit. Part of their facility includes a community care center and hospital for little children that were born infected by HIV.
We talk about Irie, we try to grasp Rastari, but this is THE REAL THING and you can be a part of it. And if you help you are going to an American they are going to be excited to invite you inside as a member of The Roots FM extended family. When the gates open and you sign the great guest book, it’s a little bit like entering OZ.
I had a great Jamaican adventure and you can too. I am not even a reggae musician and you can see the amazing welcome and blessings I received. Welcome to Jam Rock.
Time Travel
Replenishing my soul at Everett Public Library. I came here to decompress after my first trip to Jamaica one year ago. I the found the artists I worked with in the Reggae section like it was the end of Usual Suspects.
It is inspiring yet daunting and a tad melancholy that there are so many books I will never get to read that would better me. But I love to come to a place where all those books live and I can thumb through them and open up to page 161 and drop in on pure genius.
Super computers and AI may digitize everything, but if a solar flare erased every hard drive as we sleep tonight, tomorrow these Temples will be guarded by a battalion.
Well maybe not but they should. And if we were a bit more wise they would.
This is where the best of Mankind waits to whisper to you in your own inner voice. This is where you find your way into the same story one million different ways, and a piece of you becomes every character.
England is still Great and often loathed because they narc’d on themselves for 1000 years, jotting down and distorting every detail of their Island home they placed at the Center of the Universe. They drew a line from each poles and dividing the world on either side of Greenwich Time.
Judaism is the source code for all Western Gods and Law, because a desert people became and maintained literacy for a few thousand years, only matched by the Indians (red dot) and The Chinese, who did not wander because they had their Kingdoms firmly underfoot.
The Jews had to carry their land, their Kingdom of God in scrolls, in volumes, in their minds. It had to be Portable and spread far and wide enough as to never be destroyed. Without the title we call The Bible; The Roman Remix album; the second floor of The Torah, all such claims would have been Null and Void.
For The Kingdom of God as we know it is a Book. Kings including James burned men alive to keep the people from truly knowing the secrets inside.
Without a Book, God and Man may both be Dead. And without words as pictures fade, it will be as it we never existed. Just scratches on a French cave wall.
Every town in America, thanks to a little light Socialism and the logic of taxation has an Alexandria.
Now my friends, I must be off on a time traveling expedition to the Caribbean…in my mind.
You want an exclusive glimpse into Jamaican reggae barnstorming in Trinidad? I just got this video from Reggae Powerhouse Band from their appearance at the radio station in Tabago.
I don’t want to speak prematurely, but I may be doing some pretty nifty things with this group as I work on promoting ‘Free Your Mind’ throughout the Caribbean.
…I am just saying you should like this group now, and know that some of the most well connected folks in Reggae & Dancehall would love to see me return to take Trip #3 to a whole nutha level. In Jamaica things happen fast.
In this clip you can hear the group’s latest single ‘Roots’.
I tell you what though, I would love to follow my great uncle Daniel Santos’ steps and make some big things happen on the Caribbean circuit. But not quite so big. The stories of his exploits in Cuba are both Legend and a Truth that shaped the Cold War. So maybe I’ll go 1/10th as big and not flip the world upside down with a song like ‘Sierra Maestra’.
I may need to lock myself in my room and finally learn Spanish, because if I can promote the West Indian Rock singles in both Spanish and English markets, it’s a wrap.
I should have minored in Spanish in college. But my minor in American Hustle did get me to the dance. Dance with the one that brought you.
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from three weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
