Tonight I started trying to collect some photos of these adventures to Jamaica and England before they are lost in the ether and die in the coldness of the cloud. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I have 10,000 words and 100 hooks to say about this shot of a Sick Donkey Records …
Earl “Chinna” Smith (born 6 August 1955), a.k.a. Earl Flute and Melchezidek the High Priest, is a Jamaican guitarist active since the late 1960s. He is most well known for his work with the Soul Syndicate band and has recorded with many reggae artists, appearing on more than 500 albums. “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” …
I just found out the reggae singer Bunny Brown just passed away. He was the first one at Sly & Robbie’s studio that pulled me aside and wanted to hear what I had to say as a songwriter, and to just be friends. The last time we spoke we talked about working more on this …
You know this is going to be a memorable reggae show when the lovely woman of Fiji believes for the first five minutes you are a prominant Fijian named Charles Everson, with a mother from Oregon. I am definitely going to book a show in Fiji. I am damn proud to have bought the album …
Photographer Daniel T. Fleming is THE HERO tonight. He’s rolling up to Everett to grab me so I can get to this Sly & Robbie show at Nectar Lounge. He took this last night at Pike Place Market. It sure looks pretty, but how the heck am I supposed to go to work. I pulled it off this week, but this …
A work in progress. This song ‘Life Yard’ has a great story behind it. I wrote it right on the spot on location at my ‘Free Your Mind’ music video shoot when I meet the young folks behind the organic community farm, The Life Yard. They would be at first glance to some, Rude Boys, …
Last night I heard the rough mix of the Mento song I wrote, and then recorded with Joseph Whitmore and members of the current Jolly Boys line up. The Jolly Boys are the original kings of Mento, legendary in small part among many because their biggest fan Errol Flynn gave them that name. The song, ‘Go Tell …
I had ‘Free Your Mind’ removed from Spotify and all the digital stores, because a label you know is going re-release and distribute the song worldwide. ‘Free Your Mind’ will always be a Sick Donkey Records release much like this unsaid label was connected with Island Records. I say too much. But when I sign this paper …
Right now I am writing a song with Mykal Rose from Black Uruhu. Well to be more specific I am driving up to Bellingham as I listen to a track Reggae Powerhouse Band sent me called ‘Freedom’ that the band produced with the intention of matching me up with the first of a number of greats. The …
I finally got Barbara J Mitchell all the important links to help me with some PR for ‘Free Your Mind’. I am one of those artists that has never had a push from KEXP. I have a gift of gab and words come easy to me, but I can’t really explain how much it would mean right now …
What do you think about this sneak peak at my latest song out of Jamaica? I took this back to MY Roots. I have yet to try to sound Jamaican. I don’t see the point. I just have common influences. I feel the African diaspora in my blood. Even if my DNA didn’t come up …
Don’t miss this brief interview with legendary dancehall producer and keyboardist Lenky Marsden as he discusses how he and the song’s producer Anthony Red Rose turned what Lenky considers my “American Folk Ting” into what is becoming a MAJOR hit in Jamaica. It certainly is a hybrid. As a Half Puerto Rican that has always felt a bit out …
Here it is, the long awaited video for ‘Free Your Mind.’: The Book of Horace Chapter One As I am on the cusp of quite possibly having a Top 40 Hit in several countries with the song ‘Free Your Mind’, I keep hearing the voice and sage advice of my greatest professor. Horace Alexander Young. …
I have a long but wonderful list of people to still tell you about, regarding my journey last month to Jamaica. One of them is the mysterious Kingston based Selecta, Lenny Roots. The German Lennart Tacke introduced me to him and I hung with Mr Roots as he put together this educational mix tape in a peaceful …
I have found myself once again coming to understand what really happened in Jamaica, in this case, Port Antonio. Ignorance is a kind of reverse (but reversable) amnesia. I am realizing the significance of how I fell right into the heart of the Mento scene and met the ghost Errol Flynn. Well not really. But really. …
BJ DjSticky AKA Bluejay Hankins has been trying to get a new press release out of me for weeks. We polished one before I left for Jamaica but it was missing something. He needs a KILLER press release to the reach the estimated 1000 DJs that matter in the global Roots Reggae & Dancehall universe that …
After a wonderful writing session with the reggae powerhouse Hold in Fyah, I went to QFC for the only sensible thing I can eat on my new diet – 4 pieces of Baked Chicken I can spread over the next few days as if each piece were itself a giant bucket. On the way I went …
A lovely song and a lively video. Please give it a listen:
When I asked Israel Voice to give BrodieNation Music Festival a shout out up at Nine Mile on Bob Marley‘s birthday he took it a few extra steps. He launched into a completely improvised song from bottom of his huge Rastafarian heart, extolling the virtues and unparalleled greatness of Morgan Henley Epic Summer Party. This is what it looks like …
I finally know the Truth! My parents got their DNA tests back and through my Mother’s Puerto Rican side I am not just a little bit African, I am a melting pot of many African tribes including Bantu, and portions of what comes up simply as Nigerian, the tribes of Senegal, the Congo, and the …
I just took a break from an assignment from Sick Donkey Records to polish my first draft of lyrics on a song called ‘West Indian Rock’ that I am singing with my great friend Lenni I-Music. He’s pretty much the best pal a guy could have in Jamaica or anywhere, and I really want to figure out a …
Here’s a great moment from five years ago. Lightning captured in a bottle. First song opens with references to Isaiah 9:6, the Bible text which, in an enormous transatlantic and cross-cultural musical coincidence, is one of the many high (and familiar) points in Handel’s Messiah.
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 …
Tadiman has been a friend of East Portland Blog for a while. He is Slovenia’s finest reggae artist. We featured his tune. “Kdor drugemu jamo koplje” a few months ago. Tadiman can be seen in the background of the video Davin Michael Stedman took on what would have been Bob Marley’s 73rd birthday. Now he’s …
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 …
You need this mobile sound system in your life. It’s a giant boom box with a motor and steering wheel. It’s like a tank of reggae love. Do you think it was built on a riding lawn mower or a golf cart? Either way this is another shining example of Jamaican innovation and DIY creativity. …
I got to have a quick little Goonies adventure with Lenni I-Music and Ras Isachar. They took me to the lost Pirate city and English fort, Port Royal. The young tour guide Andrew Gordon was terrific. His insights were aligned with the history I could recall from books I read before and after my first …
Captain Bobby and a boat called Dr. LOVE. A fisherman and his boat. Bobby is a 73 year old fisherman who will take you into the bay of Port Antonio as he chases his daily catch of lobster and more. Then he can grill or bbq the feast right here on the beach. Any way …
My friends Bull and Joseph Whitmore and my new friend Jah T on guitar keeping Mento music alive. Jah T said something tonight that inspired me, that I want to share. But let me wait till after we do some more work with them tomorrow… But let’s just say I hatched a plan to bust Mento out …
This song is from a few years back, but this work of visual art is still worth a look. The video finds beauty amid poverty and shows the vibrance of the people of Jamaica with candid shots from life: soccer games, markets, backstreet gatherings etc. It’s bright and alive and better than any other video …