Internet is limited on this Jamaica adventure Stay tuned. I have much to say. A lot has happened since I woke up 38 hours ago. This island is most inspiring…
We rolled through the Papine neighborhood of Kingston blasting Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire on the radio, and it sounded fantastic with the street life and vibrations of the arteries of Jam Rock slamming against the heart. As the Selecta worked his drops and shout outs he handed the baton to Little Richard.
Nothing ever made Lewis and Richard sound like equals like that moment. Both of them are vital, and unlike Elvis, Chuck, James, Holly, Cash, the piano men are still alive and as ornery as ever. There’s something to that. Maybe Rock & Roll is better when you’re allowed sit down.
Jerry could f☆ckin’ play and he never sounded better than he did tonight in the heart of Kingston as a Reggae Star drove me around the city, her little daughter saying,
“Don’t worry I have an eye on him” as I wandered off in the street market that was moving in all directions like electrons.
“That’s good, but he’s safe here, he’s a free spirit.”
In my wandering I sourced the guts of epic smoothies.
Time to finally unwind as we do in hills overlooking the city from this Jungle fortress and retreat.
Well that was one of the best songwriting sessions.
Give me a soapbox and I will stand on it and sell you the truth. Kingston is the most Rock & Roll city on planet earth. Probably always has been.
You want an epic post? Here’s an epic post.
Italee Watson is opening her home to fellow musicians to stay, write, and experience the Kingston music scene from her magic castle in the hills above the bright lights.
We waited till the world got quiet to work on our duet, ‘Meet Me in Jamaica’. But when I first arrived this afternoon I pulled my guitar out and started singing the song as she began the harmonize, and suddenly the crickets all started singing.
Coincidence sure.
Then tonight, since I was on a roll, I showed Italee and Buddha the song, ‘High Times’ I remembered from the wake of the first trip. I posted the tune at the airport 24 hours ago seconds before I boarded.
Well they flipped. Jamaicans know hits and adore deep cuts.She covered her mouth when I said that I had a certain Bob Marley song in mind but it has only the spirit and none of the melody.
She said, “you did it, you were thinking of ‘High Tide or Low Tide’ but it’s nothing like it’ she inferred in terms of melody and structure.
But both songs have that yearning.
It’s all a style of Country & Folk that works perfectly with reggae musicians. But not really reggae musicians. It’s Jamaicans.
A reggae aficionado might tell me I know nothing and it’s not reggae. How I have been lectured by people over the years that claim to be Rasta but haven’t been 2700 miles from Jamaica. And they haven’t even tried. Maybe they were too busy lecturing on how to chant down Babylon and passing of a two chord vamp as a song.
But a Jamaican. A Jamaican artist hears a good song we can all work on. That’s Culture.
It becomes reggae because it’s material. The hooks, the soul, the stories are there. And the Jamaicans are genius. This is a rich culture that values songwriting like nowhere else.
I showed people certain songs in Seattle and I knew they weren’t really listening.
But when Jamaicans speak I listen.
Italee and I went back and forth with phrases and built a hook that had us both laughing that we made our hit, ‘Meet Me in Jamaica’ a bigger hit. Now to keep it 3.5 minutes and tease what we will do live with this song.
Italee is great. She can sing her ass off. She’s a natural freestyler, with the discipline to craft songs. But we discussed that the truth is that improv is the essence of writing, if you have the discipline to focus on the craft.
I wrote a song 15 months ago for us to sing knowing I would come back to finish it with her. I became a budtender and worked a lot of hours to get back here.
I left Friday, last time I laid my head to rest it was Thursday. It’s Sunday and I haven’t slept and it’s all sober, positive energy. One half ass puff of a spiff and a red stripe. That only slowed me down.
This is all the true power of Rock & Roll.
You don’t believe me? If you say you’re a Rocka here it means something. You say it doesn’t mean the same thing. But I argue that Seattle is much softer than it used to be. And Kingston is the Rock Hard Diamond.
Italee brought and aspiring Jamaican rocker to meet me at the airport. He said with some regret that he didn’t think Jamaicans would crowd surf.
I laughed and said that I didn’t think Seattle was crowd surfing and moshing anymore.
The much more Rock & Roll thing is dancing anyway. Moshing is what you do when you don’t know how.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube: Tuff Gong Television. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
