Park City, Utah

Interview by: Greg Marshall 

TAJ WEEKES IS TRYING TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING 

Move over, Bono.

Taj Weekes does relief work on St. Lucia, where he was born, to reduce poverty and promote awareness of children's issues. In November, he was named a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador to the Caribbean. He recently helped bring an optometrist and a general practitioner to St. Lucia to provide medical care for the poor.

And, oh yes, he sings. Weekes combines classic roots reggae and grassroots politics in his second album, DEIDEM, which was released in May to favorable reviews. He performs tonight, Wednesday, 9 p.m. at the Star Bar.

Songs on the album discuss global and humanitarian issues such as global warming, the effects of Hurricane Katrina, and the crisis in Darfur. The topics are insightful and serious, fans say, but the grooves, melodies and rhythms are familiar to reggae.

Weekes wrote DEIDEM, which Weekes says means "all of us," after the death of both of his parents in 2006. "The record didn't start off how it is now," he explained in a telephone interview. "I went through a period of mourning."

Weekes decided to scratch the songs he had written about his own grief, songs with titles such as "From Clay To Dust," and work on 12 new tracks that drew from global politics for inspiration.

"It was always about giving something back," Weekes said. "Even though two people died for me, people are dying every day." The singer said that one of the goals of his music is to help society "take a holistic approach and not an individualistic approach to the world."

Weekes is the youngest of 10 children. He remembers lining up with his brothers and sisters to sing for his parents, and his dad singing back to them as if they were the Von Trapps in "The Sound of Music." Weekes started his song-writing career at the age of 10 writing down the lyrics from songs he heard on LPs. Sometimes he would tinker with the words in a song and make them his own creation. "From the time I started writing," he said, "I did my own thing."

Before leaving the Caribbean to pursue music, Weekes started a band with a few of his brothers and toured the Caribbean islands. That's when he met some of the musical influences that compelled him to sing political reggae. "These people I consider town criers," he said. 'Reggae is what you call the poor man's cry. It's music you can sit and listen to. It's listening music."

Weekes performs with two backup singers and six other musicians. The band is on a six-week tour across the country spreading the word about their music.

"There's such a void in the market for the kind of music Taj sings," Weekes' manager, Shirley Menard, offered. "Taj sticks to what's real and what's true."

Weekes released the album on his own independent label, Jatta Records.

"You have to do it on your own terms in your own way," Menard said. "He couldn't make this kind of music any other way."

Danny Hill, the manager of Star Bar, said he has been playing Weekes' albums all week in his car. "We're kind of becoming known for bringing this kind of music to town," he said. "I'm excited."

Interview by:  Maggie LePique 

Maggie LePique, of Global Village Mondays on KPFK Los Angeles, interviews Taj Weekes today, May 26th, as part of a spotlight on performers at the upcoming Sierra Nevada World Music Festival on June 20-22 in Mendocino County, California. Global Village airs from 10:00 am until noon Monday through Friday featuring "music from around the world and around the block."

Listen now! 

 
Interview with:  John Shaw

John Shaw of Reggae Bloodlines, the second oldest reggae radio show in the U.S., interviews Taj Weekes today, May 24th, in advance of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. Reggae Bloodlines is a weekly Saturday afternoon show on KGNU Boulder (Colorado) from 1:00 - 4:00 pm  MTZ (mountain time).

Click here to listen!

 
After releasing perhaps the best reggae album of 2005, Taj Weekes returns with an early candidate for the best of '08 in DEIDEM. Although his unique vocals are the most immediately striking aspect of his work, Weekes remains one of the best lyricists in reggae today, reaching beyond typical reggae discourse to delve into abstract concepts, inner emotions, and new ways of delivering the same messages we've heard dozens of times before. To describe the cycle of global violence, for example, he traces it back to biblical times in Since Cain. In Kink and Crinkle, he relates the oppression of Rastas to the processing of hair, while Angry Language is an introspective journey into the battle to suppress one's rage, Dark Clouds laments global warming, and Propaganda War is a searing indictment of the press, proclaiming, "With no printing press, the lies we can't address. They steal away our joy and steal our happiness." Weekes' delivery is as heartfelt as his words, and his strong melodic structure ensures that listeners will stick around to appreciate the lyrics. Of course, the music from his band Adowa is a powerful complement. Aside from the Katrina-themed piano ballad Louisiana, it's chock-full of traditional '70s-style roots reggae, with a touch of folksy blues and a slinky electric guitar that creeps in every now and then. Weekes' is the sort of music I imagine Bob Marley singing if he were still alive today. It's smart, inspirational, musically vibrant, and just plain gorgeous. No reggae fan can afford not to know Taj Weekes.

SIERRA NEVADA WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL

 
The Sierra Nevada World Music Festival is less than five weeks away. To date, they have confirmed over 35 artists in addition to Taj Weekes & Adowa to participate in the 15th Annual Summer Solstice and World Peace Celebration.

Check out the spotlight on Taj Weekes & Adowa

Album review by: Ian Camacho

 
Album review by: Angus Taylor 

A new roots release straight from St. Lucia with DEIDEM, second album from soulful singer Taj Weekes and his band Adowa.

The picture postcard view of reggae from the mainstream is of a sunny, relentlessly upbeat genre, full of promises that everything will be “irie”. And like most clichés it contains more than an element of truth. But you’ll get no such assurance from the second full-length set by St. Lucian singer Taj Weekes and his group Adowa, who clearly inhabit a very different world.

There aren’t any laid-back island vibes to be found on DEIDEM, for it is no party album. From opener Angry Language (a chillingly honest account of the descent from high minded principle into rage) to Hurricane Katrina-inspired piano ballad Louisiana, this is melancholy soul-searching music, but the eerie detachment of Weekes' voice averts wounded sentimentality or depressing dirge. He has an ageless, genderless falsetto that could give depth to even the most trite lyrics, but this is matched by an originality and a poetic simplicity with words, an avoidance of stock terms and phrases and a tendency to deal in opposites, exemplified by his warning of impending apocalypse during For Today, where he tells us that, “The latter days have come, The ending has begun, Beginning’s on the way, Hold on for today”. Weekes is also a guitarist, and both clean melodic lead and percussive Tosh-style wah wah rhythm work (shared between him, Shelton Garner and Adoni Xavier) are at the forefront of many of the tracks, but never to the point of ill judged “rock reggae” fusion. Using his own band for the arrangements really pays off - yielding a unity that only the elite session players can attain.

Such is the sense of foreboding across most of this record - even the one lively ska type rhythm bears the chorus “since Cain slew Abel, misery and pain” - that the two major key compositions offer welcome relief. With its descending melody, clavinet and sweet vocal, first single Hollow Display sounds uncannily like The Royals’ ‘My Sweat Turns To Blood’, but Weekes’ stoical poignant description of relationship breakup deems it a worthy successor rather than a pale imitation, while Dark Clouds uses the changing seasons to give a critique of environmental destruction made palatable by its subtlety and artful turn of phrase.

In the interests of balance, it is worth mentioning that DEIDEM’s bleak mood and the primacy of the guitars in the mix may be too much for some people’s tastes. But, as a reggae artist, Taj Weekes has the full package – a strange haunting voice, deep and interesting lyrics, the ability to write songs (not just sing over rhythms) and an uncompromising view of what the music should entail. If you like old school roots the way it used to be but don’t like it to sound self consciously “retro”– this is your man. One of 2008’s best releases from outside Jamaica so far.

News report by: Maral Amiri 

The St. Lucian born roots singer Taj Weekes and his band Adowa present their new album DEIDEM.

 
After releasing their debut album HOPE & DOUBT in 2005, Taj Weekes & Adowa come with a new set called DEIDEM, just released on Taj’s label Jatta Records. Across 11 tracks, the soulful singer and native from St. Lucia delivers conscious lyrics - notably about global and humanitarian issues- on fresh roots reggae riddims.

More than painting a realist portrait of our planet and society throughout his music, Taj Weekes is working as Goodwill Ambassador to the Caribbean and as founder of his charity, They Often Cry Outreach, which is dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged, at-risk and orphaned children around the world.

 
Album review by: Ras Adam Simeon

Hailing from the island of St. Lucia, Taj Weekes offers a serious work tackling tough topics over haunting roots rock reggae. His band name Adowa is from a famous Ethiopian battle, a tribute his Ethiopian grandpa. The album starts off with Angry Language where he reconsiders his biblical teachings. He questions the truths we are fed in Propaganda War and the cycle of man's violence on Since Cain. Opression and judgement of dreadlocks is addressed on Kink and Crinkle. Dark Clouds, Orphans Cry and Hollow Display all touch on heavy subjects of inhumanity and broken hearts. Through the dark and heavy messages shine a few rays of hope; on We Stand he intones that "we've got to find a way" and fight against the odds to keep that Little Fire lit and burning. Taj has a very high sweet unique voice almost like a Pablo Moses. His band is very talented and has a Tosh/Lucky Dube feel. The disc's final cut is Lousiana, a slow balad about Hurricane Katrina. Despite the dense material, the disc is not depressing, rather it's serious message music and food for thought.  Jatta Records

 
Album review by: Salvatore Baldacchino

Voici un album réussi, aux confins du reggae roots, Taj Weekes est fidèle à ce son essentiel, à cette musique qui fait vibrer. Ce bidouilleur nous a concocté un album efficace grâce à son savoir faire et cette touche unique qu’il sait déverser tout au long des 11 titres proposés. Un album fait d’atmosphère un brin décalées (et on ne s’en plaint pas …) qui évoquent souvent le reggae des années 70. Au final, un album assez épatant.

"In the end, quite an amazing album."