Roots & Soul Artistes Deliver Powerful Messages

A NUMBER of artistes used music to speak to the soul by sending out some powerful messages during their performances at the inaugural Roots & Soul Summer Festival.

The event, which took place last weekend at the Pigeon Island National Landmark, featured local artistes, including Chrycee featuring Dynamix Band, Kayo, Rob “Zii” Taylor and Phyness, Deanna Philip and 4th World, as well as international artistes, including Musiq Soulchild, Etana, Morgan Heritage and Christopher Martin, who brought along a guest artiste, fellow Jamaican powerhouse, D Major.

The weekend festival appeared to give patrons much more than they bargained for, ranging from outstanding performances from the local acts, to the top-notch performances from headlining artistes, who also lived up to their crowd-pleasing reputations.

While every performance bore weight, two artistes stood out when they delivered powerful messages to the crowds during and after their performances on Saturday. One was Christopher Martin, who spoke to the youth, asking them to follow their dreams and to use his life as testimony that they can succeed regardless of the circumstances of their upbringing.

When asked about his upbringing, Martin said: “Where I came from is somewhere I’m not going back to. I feel like the Almighty has blessed me in such a wonderful way that I fully understand the necessity of using what he’s blessed me with. He has blessed me with this voice, so that I can share it with people.”

Martin stated that he loves his profession so much that the monetary gain does not matter because he feels at home on a stage. He said that based on his past, if asked where he saw himself in 2005, he would say at best as a supermarket worker or a banker.

“When I look back at my life, one thing I’m very happy about is that my parents saw it fit that I should have a solid education. So if I didn’t have anything at all, I knew I was a very smart young man. So when I was granted this opportunity to use my voice and better myself, I took full advantage of it.

“So everywhere I go, I like to use my life as full testament to tell people: that it doesn’t matter what you’re going through in life, there is always a brighter side. I don’t have a plan B, and I love telling people don’t have (one); I just have a plan A, because once you don’t have any alternative, you will only work steadfast towards what’s in front of you,” he explained.

Martin reminded fans that they are never too old or too young to live their dream. The reggae crooner is renowned for stepping away from the norm of the day by singing music focusing on love, relationships and empowerment, including his hit, “Big Deal”, as opposed to artistes who sing mainly about sex and violence.

Martin, who writes his own music, said that while he uses himself as a medium and sings about what he knows, there are two main reasons why he keeps his music respectful.

He said: “I don’t know about that lewd behaviour and I don’t want to tell girls to do things that I would never tell my girlfriend. At the end of the day, my Mom can’t listen to them. I’m not saying that she can’t because she can, but she won’t, and I would never want to have a song and my mother can’t listen to it. My mother is a very big fan of my music. I would never want to disappoint her.”

Martin said loyalty to his fans also dictates the kind of music he pens and he owes it to them to remain himself: “I try to walk a certain path, not just for people, because you can’t try to please people. But at the end of the day, I am pleased with the type of music that I’m doing, and I feel like my fans have grown to respect and love me for this type of music. I’m not in the business of losing fans to gain new fans. I want to add new fans to existing fans. It doesn’t matter to me which way the pendulum is swinging; I don’t swing with it.”

Another artiste who made his mark on the same night was Phil Nessy, who was a featured artiste during the 4th World set.

With the event being the seven-member group’s moment to shine, they took every opportunity to showcase their work for the past 10 years, as well as to highlight societal issues that are in need of addressing.

During Nessy’s performance, he sang openly about his usage of marijuana and in one repeated line, asked the crowd: “Do you want to smoke a joint, too?”

When asked about the meaning of his lyrics and what he had set out to achieve, Nessy said: “We’re raised in a time where they tell you that marijuana is bad for you, which is all lies. Really and truly, it is not bad for you. Cigarettes are bad for you, and everything else that they create. But, you see, it’s a financial decision by the powers that be.”

Nessy said that his song was indeed a campaign statement and that he was using his medium to send the message to the authorities that the popular but controversial plant should be decriminalised in St. Lucia.

He continued: “It’s to open up our mind because we can’t be sitting in a cocoon all the time; we have to face the reality and we have to start thinking. No one will think for you; you have to think for yourself. We have to make logical sense at the end of the day, and we are artistes, so we have to express ourselves about whatever happens around us all the time.”

The group praised the organisers of the new festival, calling it a perfect way for local artistes to show their worth. The event, Nessy said, is also a way to celebrate the genre on its own as opposed to sharing it with other genres as was done during the previous St. Lucia Jazz Festival.

He said: “When you go to Dominica’s Creole Festival, they’re not playing with it. When you go there, that’s what you’re going to get. When you come to reggae and soul, that’s what you should get. When you come to jazz, that’s what you should get. When it’s Creole time, that’s what you should get. So it gives everybody the opportunity to express their talent in the right genre of music so that everybody could benefit.”