Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads

Judd’s Restaurant at Gateway City Arts is open for dinner the night of the show, make a reservation here!

Generously sponsored by Canna Provisions, Holyoke.

You may think “this ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around” music, and you’re right: this is serious…as in seriously good! A non-stop, fun- loving musical journey that’s as good for the head as it is for the soul. So get ready to get up, get set and get down as Talking Dreads take you joyriding in their tour-de-force debut! Since debuting his musically revolutionary Talking Dreads project live at the High Times Music Festival on the beach in Negril in late 2015, the charismatic Jamaican-born singer and performer has electrified audiences at more than 100 shows across North America – spinning the heads of initially skeptical Talking Heads fans, and getting everyone else grooving along to the infectious, joyous rhythms and jubilant spirit of his native island. Considering the success of these events, it was only a matter of time before Bowie – who has lived in the Northeastern U.S. for many years – headed back to his cherished homeland and set up shop at the famed Barry O’Hare Studios in Ocho Rios. He gathered old friends he had played music with since childhood, along with younger musicians, legendary Jamaican artists and other surprise guests to capture all the magic of his live performances on the epic, 13 track recording Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads.

Mystic can trace his passion for all things Talking Heads back to his early days performing at hotels in Jamaica, when he heard “Wild Wild Life” – but his connection to the legendary new wave band goes much deeper. His close personal and professional relationship with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, founding members of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, began when he joined the latter group as a singer in 1996. He appeared on their 2000 album The Good, The Bad and the Funky and performed with them for nearly 20 years. Mystic’s first spark of inspiration for the concept that evolved into Talking Dreads began during his time with Tom Tom Club, when there were attempts by certain entities to secure a new Talking Heads album and reunion tour.

After creating rough recordings in a Berklee rehearsal room, Mystic moved to a pro studio in Boston to create a fully produced demo. The demo featured 11 songs that spanned the entire Talking Heads’ discography, starting with early favorites like “Psycho Killer” and “Pulled Up” and continuing with their best known hits such as “Burning Down the House,” “Cross Eyed and Painless,” “Houses in Motion”; and brilliant but more obscure gems like “This Must Be The Place.” He got an instant “thumbs up” from Frantz and Weymouth, then ran it by Seymour Stein, the music industry mogul who had signed Talking Heads to his label, Sire Records, and helped make them superstars. “Seymour’s exact words were, ‘Why the hell didn’t I ever think of this?’ When I asked for his blessing, he said, ‘On one condition: that you include ‘Love, Building on Fire,’ which is the song he heard them sing at CBGB’s in New York that ultimately inspired him to sign them.”

The Talking Dreads debut features an amazing lineup of legendary reggae figures, including singer Freddie McGregor, whose recording career dates back to his 1980 album Bobby Bobylon; ska guitar master Ernest Ranglin, session player and arranger of Millie’s hit “My Boy Lollipop” and the Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon” (Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Monty Alexander); singer and Soul Train Award nominee Tarrus Riley (“Start Anew,” “Good Girl Gone Bad”) and saxophone great Dean Fraser. Bridging generations, Mystic also invited his young drummer friend Kirk Bennett and his old friend Lincoln Thomas, who is McGregor’s longtime guitarist. The sole non-Jamaican on Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads, Cindy Wilson of the B-52s, was chosen as a voice that harkens back to the era of Talking Heads’ new wave heyday. Wilson duets beautifully with Mystic on a dreamy, soulful rendition of “Heaven.”

In addition to these livelied-up re-takes of Talking Heads’ classics, Talking Dreads’ debut recording also includes two timeless pop bonuses: “Piece of My Heart,” so often attributed to Janis Joplin thanks to her famous cover with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and “Shakedown Street,” a song near and dear to all those in Deadhead nation. “If audiences have even a fraction of the fun listening to this as we had making it, we’ll return to the studio to skank-ify more great songs in the near future”, says Bowie.