Mystic Bowie's Talking Dreads - Bob Marley 80th & Mystic Bowie Double Birthday Celebration!
City Winery Boston presents Mystic Bowie's Talking Dreads - Bob Marley 80th & Mystic Bowie Double Birthday Celebration! live on Thursday, Feb 6 at 7:30pm.
On “Life During Wartime,” the first single from Talking Heads’ 1979 album Fear of Music, David Byrne famously sang the immortal lyrics, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco…no time for dancing…” Yet all those anti-fun declarations go gleefully out the window when Mystic Bowie, aka the “Head Dread,” takes the stage, re-imagining and infusing fresh life into the Talking Heads’ classic catalog with his high octane mix of roots reggae, ska and lover’s rock (aka “romantic reggae”).
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 300 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.
“Talking Dreads is much more than a cover band,” Mystic says. “I am very much drawing on my own musical culture and history to make these amazing songs my own, while at the same time preserving the integrity of the Talking Heads songs. I’ve always felt that reggae’s dance-inspiring, feel good vibe is universal, as are many of the band’s songs. And don’t forget their intelligent, powerful lyrics, which are fun to sing and shine fresh light on through this new fusion of styles. It took a lot of effort to deconstruct and dissect each song to make it work seamlessly with my singing and performance style. I removed all the instrumentation, kept the story and words, then created my own reggae, Caribbean and tribal feel and married those two elements – then brought back a few of the melodies that captured my attention back in the day.”
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. “I was already fantasizing about being a backup singer,” Mystic laughs, “but when that hope was not realized, I thought about my own lengthy solo career and my work with Chris and Tina and mused, ‘Why not marry the two ideas, my reggae culture and heritage and Talking Heads Music and lyrics?’ I kept this as a secret for eight years and then went to Berklee College three years ago, recruited a handful of students to jam with me and started reconstructing some of the band’s classic songs. My only criterion was that the kids were familiar with the band and were reggae fans.”
