Big announcement from Jamaica. The great Mento musicians from Port Antonio, including Jah T from The Jolly Boys came to see me with a bottle and a big idea: They want to do a national tour of Jamaica next Fall with me to promote Mento music to the people of Jamaica. We recorded this song …
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A producer peeling a grapefruit with a giant knife just told me the greatest story I have ever heard about how his father and his best friend were growing marijuana in mountains back when he was a child. They rigged a brilliant escape route where they made a hidden slide down the mountain that they …
Ital Sunday dinner with the squad by the ocean. Last natural food restaurant open in Port Antonio on a Sunday, and their last plates of food. Tomorrow I am going to likely mix my Dennis Brown cover with Uncle Mike, the man behind Shaggy’s Boombastic that is hosting me here. Then I meet up with …
I am pretty excited about the risk we’re taking at my first show in Jamaica. We’re closing with a Mento song that we turned into a full on Rock Song. This band is two Jamaican cops and this Jamaican drummer that is the in the pocket reincarnation of Keith Moon. …and a Budtender from Seattle. …
Wanna see Rock reborn in East Jamaica? Something absolutely magic happened last night at rehearsal with Lenni I-Music and his Trail Blazer Band. We turned this little Mento song I wrote called, ‘Go Tell It To The Mystics’ into a genuine Arena Rock anthem. And the take after this was the most punk moment I have ever …
I am going to be as tan as I was back in high school in Summertime whether I like it or not. You can’t escape the sun. Jogging with your shirt on makes no sense. Miss 80’s, mid 70s humidity. The only thing I ate today are mangos and sweet cups, which are really passion …
We need to talk about mangoes. All we are eating in this Country is mangos. Here we are at famed reggae singer Mark Wonders house and he takes us to the Mango tree and says, “Take all you like.” Isachar changed the game and told me to just not even bother peeling eat the skin, …
I wrote some more cool songs with Ras Isachar this morning. Writing with a Selecta is like having a library of vibrations at your disposal. Isachar claims he’s not a singer, but that’s a pretty incredible vibrato you have there, Sir. If you dig that African medallion, Mamadou Diakite is your MAN in West Seattle. If you …
My view this morning as I drink my smoothie 6 miles from Kingston. Italee Watson is taking me to the beach for the first time in all of my adventures here. We’re going to run a few miles, write some new songs, and hang with her kids. The youngest probably has the cutest damn accent …
Wrote my first porch song in Louisiana morning…I mean afternoon. At least it’s the first porch tune of this trip. The first visit here to see Justin in 2017 with Lewis Harding, many songs that came from ether and landed here. I am sending the video to my Patreons, because their support is making it possible …
Justin Armstrong‘s recording palace on the edge of New Orleans is almost complete. This is where I hope to come back and record my long imagined album, Home Cookin’ with Eric Struthers. The first time I came down here to see Justin, I recorded ‘Stop Crying at The Club’ and ‘Last Train to Houston’ with Justin …
I am clearly a big fan of Casey Brookbush. I shot this at Hangar 420 Snohomish before the storm of 420 swept over us. It was a fun day working with old friend Jess Webb who was one of the people that can say she was there in 2002 when the The Staxx Brothers got started, hit the road, and wrote …
TONY DANZA!!! This is one of those moments where songwriting, comedy, collaboration, and concerts collide. This 4.20 Hangar 420 Snohomish and The Soul United Allstars collaborated on a wonderful little experiment. We threw a pop up funky reggae party with just a flat bed, the little PA equipment I rehearse with, and Pat Canavan’s carvings …
THIS WAS ENGLAND: Some pretty incredible things are happening. I have been lucky to capture some stunning moments of songs being developed and created. This is where I wrote ‘Free Your Mind’ in Brighton, England. I also wrote this song, ‘I Don’t Want to Leave’ right when I got back from Glasgonbury when the Brexit …
Here is a little Easter egg! I was filming myself singing the lullaby ‘Andrea’ that I wrote for my niece minutes ago, and Andrea pops in. It’s sweet. I wrote this for her in this house soon after she was born, as her grandmother she now calls Abuela was holding her. My mother looked up …
Spent my day off working on a hook for Reggae Powerhouse Band with the magic Mell Dettmer. Mell helped me overcome the dilemma that the hook I wrote for the outro the band leader loved, just doesn’t fit on the chorus section. This is my first experience crafting a Riddim. There will be other versions of this song …
Shawn Smith, one of the Seattle music community’s most respected and beloved figures, has died aged 53. Cause of death [has been reported as complications from diabetes.] A solo artist for some years, the singer/songwriter made his bones in the 90s with the band Brad, and later, with Satchel and Pigeonhed. Smith’s music was featured …
BANNED! You wanna know what shocked me more than anything about this whole Jamaican adventure? This has Tuff Gong International scratching their head, and let this be a dire warning to us all: Artificial “Intelligence” has determined this FREE YOUR MIND video is explicit sexual content and CANNOT be boosted to a wide audience. A …
– 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 …
I showed my Puerto Rican Mama my rough mix of ‘West Indian Rock’ I leaked here for 24 hours. She was so happy with it and how the song was stuck in her head that she made my Dad put on The Mighty Quinn. Denzel is her favorite actor. He’s my favorite actor. I played Toots …
We went to the Mountain Top. I brought 11 musicians in my Soul United Allstar squad for a 4 hour session at Stevens Pass Mountain Resort. It won’t be the last Summit. This is something I want to do around the world, with King Porter Stomp alums like Ras Jones, Badj Whipple, and Jonathan Waller. We played my English Sherlock Soul …
THIS IS KINGSTON: This was a big victory for Everett Rock & Roll and Reggae in Central Washington. This is my soon to be distributed by Tuff Gong International hit on the rise, ‘Free Your Mind,’ as it enjoys its’ vinyl premier at the legendary Vinyl Thursday in Kingston. This is Sick Donkey Records chief BJ DjSticky (Bluejay …
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 …
Singin’, thinking…trying not to write a hook a day. There are few things better to fail at that, than not songwriting. I can’t help it. I programmed my mind at the tail end of college to make playing my upside down guitar like a diary. A way to think outloud and collect my thoughts. To …
Check out this song idea! Should I call it ‘Old Bold Pilots’ or ‘Young Man’s Game’? This hit me when this story about Sinatra arguably inventing the album said “Sinatra was on the wrong side of 30 in a young man’s game.” Then before I could pull over to write this song a train stopped …
To all you out there helping me, I salute you. Thank you. There is no such thing as a self made man. Some of us start a little closer finish line, but this race is about how we all can lift each other up. How we can be each other’s champions. I have a little …
You have to hand it to Vladamir Putin. He is the greatest Bond villain of our life times. Somewhere the real James Bond and Jack Ryan are as dead as Lincoln’s party, now a Confederated Zombie orgy of shameless stupidity. This my friends is MAGA. Russia is still screwed, because it is Russia, but for …
This melody came to me in the closing minutes of Christmas. A little gift from the universe? Or is this somebody else’s song? It sounds too perfect. Like an old pentonic blues riff; how could only little ol’ me have been the first to do this with these notes? Is it mine? “This fire won’t …
A big theme for me that I keep thinking about is this: I don’t want to waste people’s time. Time is a treasure beyond measure. We don’t know how much of it we have left. People are willing to give it if they don’t feel it is going to be squandered and unappreciated, and that …