A great moment yesterday was sitting down with Chinna as he listened to what we did with his ‘Bush Doctor’ production.
It’s been over two years since he produced me. Andrew D.B. Joslyn added strings. An incredible string arrangement. When the strings came in, he just kept saying “maaaaaad”. He was smiling so bright.
He gave me his blessing to make this my next single. I have been sitting on this song for the right moment. I have a lot of songs like that. But this one is something else.
Garrett Gibbons is shooting the video before he moves to New Zealand. We’re going to shoot it at Morgan Henley ‘s legendary childhood home and site of BrodieNation Music Festival 2019!.
These songs of this West Indian Rock album are all so different and each are a story unto themselves. Stories within stories within stories.
I had the chance to work with legends. And Chinna may be the most accessible and yet mercurial. After you work with Chinna, you’re never the same.
…and the same is another way to say Death, if you’re an artist. It is in Death that you lose the chance to change and only shift along a fixed timeline of when you were shifting between your trueself like chords, and destiny ringing bass tones that change the color of everything you imagine you control.
Chinna however is something in between. He is the natural mystic. And he has left his mark on thousands of songs. And of all of them, together, an allstar cast, we may have recorded his most unique and unclassifiable production.
Who wants to come to Jamaica this February? There will be so many shows. You will make so many new friends.
Some of you may stay here. This is where we’re going to be rehearsing to turn Jam Rock into a giant Band in Seattle TV Special.
Timing is everything. And my friends in America, in England, and Jamaica are working on something magnificent you will have the chance to witness and be a part of in a moment. Trust me moments pass. Greats like Bunny Brown that were helping me on this mission are gone. This is a window into the third act of Roots Reggae’s greatest generation. The ones that made it this far.
By all means, watch it on television. But I met last night with the author of the travel book Moon Jamaica for a reason.
This is a magical world out of time. It’s Almost Famous with The Internet.
Come away with me, and see what I’ve saying for over the last two years. See the island that is lifting me up to a place in music I always hoped I would belong.
A place where I getting to be the World Music artist. The exotic one. That boy with the songs and the funny accent that keeps coming back even younger. With more confidence and hunger.
You can stay here. With a reggae star named Italee.
Wrapped up last night at the mansion of an author above the city, sipping Rum and speaking about his latest film in Cuba.
The day started out at Tuff Gong Studios. Then lunch with my Godfather Anthony Red Rose, listened to Bush Doctor with Chinna Inna Di Yard, went to meet Tuff Like Iron, and reached here.
I also dined at Little Caesars…because it was my Jamaican friend Noel’s turn to pick. When in Rome…
…eat like Young Jamaica. I worked at the Little Caesars in Mays Pond in the mid 1990s. 25 years later, I once again ate breadsticks in a parking lot stocked with seedy characters and fruit salesmen from Central casting.
A great moment yesterday was sitting down with Chinna as he listened to what we did with his ‘Bush Doctor’ production.
Who wants to come to Jamaica this February? There will be so many shows. You will make so many new friends.
– 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.
