Delroy Ledgister our Director of Photography just sent this behind the scenes clip of me showing the kids of Fleet Street in Kingston the song I pulled out of thin air about their urban garden & underground community center, LIFE YARD.
Delroy captured a cool moment because one of the kids told me to song in my real voice because I had been using my falsetto on the hook. I hadn’t sang in full voice the entire trip. This singer-songwriter thing is like a vacation from being me and everything people expect me to be.
But when I switched to my chest voice, my voice filled the entire block. Eddie Hernandez once calculated at Wild Buffalo during a funk night, that compared to the other singers, I am 8 times louder. Reggae drummer Blake Dally said that the only singer he heard that sang as loud as me is Toots and the Maytals.
I have been trying to dial my voice back and figure out how I can sing LIVE and make my voice last as I turn 75 this year. I actually wonder, that if I sing that loud, am I making myself deaf.
Probably. Enjoy this moment. I want to shoot a video for the song ‘Life Yard’ here with these kids and this community next year. This was a good start. Film a video and write a new song for another video right here on location.
The goal is a song they can be a part of that will benefit an idea they developed of sustainable farming that spread to many so called “Ghettoes” as the Jamaicans describe them. I was told it was a rough area and to be careful. But it just felt like Mays Pond with more sunshine.
We all need more art and community gardens. A lot of ‘nice’ neighborhoods don’t go the goods. This is an open air Art Gallery with fine acoustics. The roof may fall, but you can still decorate the walls.
*Written on a grey Seattle day to the patter and pitter of drizzling rain. Video or it didn’t happen…well?
Shhh…don’t tell nobody. I just got a little sneak peak of the ‘Free Your Mind’ video from the Cuban. This video is not like my other videos…
Dorothy you ain’t in Kansas anymore.
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.
