Carlos Jones

A song that was given to me from a vision I had...

I was having a conversation with a lady after one of our shows, and she was telling me how our music lifts her spirits from the heaviness of everyday life, refuels her energy and inspires her to keep going at it. What more could an artist ask for? That kind of feedback keeps ME going and lets me know I must be on the right track. #onelove #onevibration

🕯💓🎶✨😌

January 6, 2022 -

One year ago today, a megalomaniacal, power-mad, dictator wanna-be incited and directed a violent insurrection against our nation's Capitol building, in order to try and prevent the peaceful transfer of power in a free and fair election, based on the delusion that it was stolen from him. Who will answer for this threat to our democracy, which has stood for over 200 years?

How will this chapter be recorded in our history, and who will be here to write it?

Flashback:

So it was sometime in the spring of 1998 (I think) and Chopper and I are doing what we had done for so many years in the past, and that's putting a song together. The band we started in 1984, First Light, was in its last year of existence, but we still had that creative spark that had generated so many of the songs that people had come to know and love. This particular tune was a combination of music Chopper had come up with and lyrics that I wrote. We had done these things separately, but when I went over to Chop's that day and he played me what he had, I was like hey I've got these lyrics I think might work for this, and it just so happens that they fit like a hand in a glove! (I love it when that happens) We didn't know at the time it was the last song we would write together for many many years.

At that point in time our home recording technology was pretty basic, a 4-track cassette deck and a Boss DR-550 drum machine, but we laid it down in the living room and just kept it moving, thinking we would get back to it soon and clean it up and add this and that, but that never happened. What you're hearing now is basically the way it went down that day, with Chop on bass and me on guitar and vocal. I want to note that my voice sounds a little rough like Joe Cocker or somebody like that, because it was prior to my having surgery on my vocal chords to have nodes removed, caused by all the years of singing, but I think it adds character (yeah right)

Anyway, the tape sat in a box in storage for a couple of decades and change, and hadn't seen the light of day until one day I was digging around in the basement and came across it. The song is called "What I Think" and what really strikes me is that the words I wrote over 20 years ago seem to fit in these times we're living in right here and now.

At least that's what I think.

Los

What I Think

I think -

there has really got to be some kind of life on Mars

What kind of ego does it take to think we're the only thing living out here among the stars

When we look at the complete picture, once our little grain of sand is gone

What difference will it really have made?

Things and time will still go on

I think -

there's a major significance in what we're experiencing weather-wise

It's time to take a look around and for once in our short existence open up our eyes

The effect we've had on our planet is almost unbelieveable

Trying to overcome what we have done is what we face

I think -

everybody oughta maybe start thinking about getting together

How can we ever add it up if all we ever do is take away?

We can hurt and kill each other for little or no reason

Trying to figure out what we're all about is just too intense

At least that's what I think

What I think

Gonna tell you what I think

That's what I think

(but hey that's just my opinion)

(you know what I'm saying?)

(yeah)

The groove just hit me like that...

Nyabinghi Ises to The Most High, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of The Tribe of Judah, Haile Selassie I - Jah Rastafari!

Cleveland Reggae Artists United - 1992

"Papa Dave" Smeltz/

Ed "Cellis" Skinner/

Session "Butchie B" Buchanan/

Brignite "Ras Briggy" Hill/

Carlos Jones

-

Alright...

So after another deep dig into the dusty cassette tape archives, I have emerged with another golden nugget for you guys. When have you ever had the time to listen to random tapes with no labels or tracklists just to see what's on there? As it's been said, there's no time like the present, and so here we are.

Well, imagine my surprise when this started playing and it shocked me back to 1992, when I took it upon myself to seek out some of my bredren to join me in this version of a well known song (you all know it). I recorded the music tracks at home on my trusty little 4-track cassette recorder, and then went to each of the singers with tape deck and microphone in hand to get each one to contribute a verse. On it, we have "Papa Dave" Smeltz (I-tal), Ed "Cellis" Skinner (Satta), Session "Butchie B" Buchanan (Outlaws I&I) and Brignite "Ras Briggy" Hill (Brignite & Whitespot), with myself supplying a verse as well as backing vocals.

Back then, there really wasn't a way to share music as easily as it is now. You had to make copies of a tape and physically take it or mail it to people. A lot of times, that just never happened - life's circumstances and the sands of time would eventually just bury things you'd done and you'd move on to the next whatever it was, no matter how good the intentions may have been at the time. This archeological find was quite a shocker because I had forgotten all about it, and listening to it now, I'm pretty amazed at how not bad it sounds for a 4-track recording, with the limited resources and limited skills I had at the time. And I don't think too many people besides myself have ever heard this, unless they came to my pad on Hampshire back in the day. So now, only 29 years later, this is finally seeing the light of day. I hope you enjoy it, and catch the vibes of Cleveland Reggae Artist United, as it should always be.

One Love,

Los

✌🏽💓🎶

It's Throwback Thursday - And I've got a good one for you...

I was recently digging through a crate of old cassette tapes and found this little nugget - a tape I had recorded many many years ago, recorded on a little boombox that was just sitting onstage -

So right now I'd like to throw it back to a late summer night in 1979...

The scene: a hot, cramped little bar called Mother's, in Kent, Ohio. The band was called I-tal.

I was 21 and had been hanging around with the band for about a year at that point, basically following them from place to place, and they would allow me to jam with them on percussion. I was kind of like a stray cat they had fed once and after that I just kept coming back, because I knew I could get my musical handout. This particular night, I was in my usual spot, which was either off to the side of the stage, or in this particular case, tucked in a corner on the floor just in front of the keyboards. It didn't matter to me - I just wanted to play. We were a couple songs into the second set and just as Papa Dave (Smeltz) was about to start the next song, Ellie (keyboards) hollers, "Carlos! Come on get kinky!" Now, in any other setting, that might mean something totally different, but in this particular case it meant they were about to play "Kinky Reggae", and she was calling me up to come and sing backups! (you can actually hear that moment on the tape) Needless to say, I wasted no time, and that night was my official vocal debut with the band. Not long after that I was made a permanent member, and the rest, as they say, was history. If you there during those times, I'm sure you remember all the good times we had, at Peabody's, Pirates Cove, The Agora, Coventry Street Fair, Hessler Street Fair, and all of the college towns and far-flung places we'd travel to and bring the Roots Rock Reggae vibes. What a time...

If you got stories, I'd love to hear 'em. And be sure to thank Papa Davey for pioneering Cleveland Reggae in a Rock-n-Roll town.

On this day and EVERY day, I seek to amplify the voice of Love, Unity and Justice, because the voice of hate, division and discrimination has been too loud, for too long. Especially now as we are in the struggle against having a wannabe dictator take over the country and do away with our democracy and constitution. Our voting rights, for which Dr. King and so many others fought for so fervently, are under threat of being diminished and stripped away. The stakes could not be higher. We find ourselves in a place where truth, compassion, decency and honor seem to be in short supply, and people who have no shame or regard for truth are willing to do whatever it takes to take control and hold power and dominance over our society. They simply don't care how it looks, or what lengths they have to go to, as long they get the power they are seeking. It's going to take great effort and force of will to resist this tide of evil, and those who came before us are watching and hoping that we won't let everything they struggled for, and some died for, just slip away. I just want to remind everyone that however things turn out; we, as a race of humans are going to have reach down deep inside to try and find the will and determination to NOT sink to the level of the worst of our nature, but WORK to raise our collective consciousness and do the things that will allow us to survive and create a better life and a brighter future.

This is a dream I know I share with many, so I'm using my voice the best way I know how - to shine some Light in this darkness.

The time is RIGHT NOW!!!

Carlos Jones

Written at a time when I needed some positive reinforcement to keep going. That was over 25 years ago - so far so good...