Winston sounds good, like a reggaeman should

>> Burning Spear celebrates 30 years in reggae with a Grammy and a tour

by SCOTT C

Winston Rodney has been making reggae music with cultural style and spiritual consciousness for over 30 years. Hailing from the same enchanted part of Jamaica that introduced Bob Marley to the reggae world, the St. Ann's Bay native known across the globe as Burning Spear continues to write songs about black history, Garveyism, Rasta truths and universal love. This year, with Calling Rastafari, Burning Spear joined Carlos Santana in becoming a Grammy award-winning artist who should have won a long, long time ago. I spoke to Spear on the phone from his home in New York.



Mirror: So how's the tour going?

Burning Spear: It's going good, but we just started. We just did our second show. Our first show was at the Urban Plaza in New York just yesterday.

M: You live in New York, don't you?

BS: Yeah. Just start it off nice at home and then work our way across.

M: You mean across the States?

BS: We are doin' 50 states and will finish up sometime in November.

M: Wow. And you've been touring like this for years. How's the band looking? I read that you changed things up a bit for the first time in a while.

BS: I changed up the band even before we put this tour together. The band is lookin' good, soundin' good, everyone workin' hard. To be honest with you, there always comes a point where you have to change the band. Change a couple of musicians and move on.

M: How long have you lived in New York?

BS: Well, I was comin' to New York since the early '70s, but we started to actually live and do business here about six years ago.

M: But I'm assuming that you get back to Jamaica a lot.

BS: Very often.

M: Calling Rastafari was recorded in Jamaica?

BS: All of them have been recorded there. All of my records. I move to New York because you must be there business-wise, you must. But if the business is in New York, then the music is in Jamaica. (laughs)

M: What does a Grammy mean to you?

BS: All the records that I make have been recognized by the people, but the Grammy recognition is a different level of recognition. Where the music industry is really involved, y'know? I appreciate and respect that level.

M: It's funny that you would say that. A lot of artists like yourself work their whole life and when the Grammy win comes, it just doesn't matter to them.

BS: It's just another thing.

M: Yeah.

BS: I still respect and appreciate it, though, even though I wasn't a winner earlier on in my career. We are all involved in the music industry and the music business and regardless how much I feel I should have been a winner from a longer time, I still respect what takes place at this time.

With Equalizer at le Medley on Tuesday, July 25, 9pm, $18.25 (tax incl.)