Very rarely do we have a group, a Reggae group, open
themselves to a hungry audience. The
hunger (which can be described as a yearning to know everything there is to
know about a group while they’re performing and beyond the stage), will be fed
but the question becomes who is going to feed that hunger: the group performing or the audience
listening.
Morgan Heritage (Lukes,
Una, Peetah, Gramps, Memo) took to the stage at SOB’s in Manhattan and fed
their hungry audience. Beginning with fresh
greens, Jemere Morgan, son of Gramps Morgan warmed the audience with
his hit singles and did so acoustically.
Having heard him on the radio, this change was a refreshing treat. The audience was more than receptive
especially when he hit his current hit song “Neighborhood Girl.” The
audience erupted and sang along with the Junior Morgan which supports the
majorities’ opinion that he is the new Prince of Reggae.
Making a grand entrance, including security having to clear
a path for them to get on stage (the venue was packed to capacity), Morgan
Heritage fed the hungry audience a super-sized main course and dessert. The crowd enjoyed every morsel, licked their
fingers and scraped their plate. Here’s
how MH did it….
Beginning the show with track 7 from their album Here Come
the Kings, “Looking For the Roots”
and all its’ Roots Reggae greatness set the tone and the pace for the
evening. The group went on to perform “Here Comes the Kings” and “The Perfect Love Song.” In addition to performing songs from their
album, older classics “Don’t Haffi Dread,” “Your Friend” and “She’s Still
Loving Me” hit the spot of fans who have been with the group from day one.
Never afraid to tell fans the way it is, Peetah spoke to VP Records asking them
to be more supportive of Reggae artists, he spoke to all radio hosts (in
particular HOT 97 FM New York), calling on them to support more independent
artists as well as more support for Reggae artists and not just Dancehall
artists. Further on in the discussion,
Peetah took aim at promoters who produce stage shows without including Reggae
artists and only promoting Dancehall artists.
As a salute to the legends who came before, Peetah explained
the relationship between his Father, Denroy Morgan and Toots Hibbert who are brothers, born and raised in the same
house. From that explanation, the group
performed “Bam Bam” in a Mento style and also explained that Toots and the
Maytals are the ones who began what we know as Reggae. Nice.
Continuing with a salute to their forefathers, Gramps explained
the reason why he loves Shabba as
much as he does an gave the audience a DJ freestyle that the audience
loved. You need to hear the icon say “ah
meeeeeeeeeeeee man!” Classic.
Behind the scenes, Shane
Brown did a flawless job with the engineering, Destine Xposure did an excellent job with organization, and Irish and Chin did, as they always do,
a great job with marketing; perfect team work and an example of the reasons why
all are considered to be the best in their field.
Morgan Heritage will be performing in Montreal on August 16th
as a part of the 10th annual Montreal International Reggae Festival. For more info, visit www.montrealreggaefest.com.
P.S. No matter where
you are in the world, request Morgan Heritage on your favorite radio station,
and from your favorite promoter. This is
one of the few groups doing right by the genre!
@morganheritage
