John
Brown's Body They gracefully pour through modern reggae joy throughout the album, but
especially on tracks like "Among Them," "This Is Not the End," "Music Is My
Only Friend," and "Tell Me Something." "Ziontific Dub" unleashes some pure dub
for the listener to get into and enjoy. Then there are cuts like ""Thank You
Oh Lord" and "Singers & Players," which possess tremendously beautiful and
warm vocal leads which would melt even the hardest of souls.
So much can be said about a band that can reach you on an entertaining and
spiritual level; John Brown's Body is one of these bands. They search deep
inside themselves to deliver the purest, warmest, friendliest, and most uplifting
work they can. The album hits the spot; I'll give it an A.
Among Them (Shanachie)
In Music We Trust, 11/99
Boston's John Brown's Body, a reggae septet,
speaks from their heart and soul, and it comes across in their music.
Listening to their Shanachie debut, AMONG THEM, you feel the love pouring out
of every note they play and every word they sing; they speak to your soul and
help warm it up at the same time. The dancehall, dub, and overall Jamaican
flavors of their music are rich and ripe, profound and spiritual, putting
their faith in God and pushing everything forward to help those who need it
the most. Their album is not only a good time, it is a near-religious
experience.
-Alex Steininger
Reviews: This is strong stuff, indeed. Lead singer/writer Kevin Kinsella definitely
delivers the goods and uses powerful, conscious lyrics to bring out the album's
spiritual theme. "Let God's love reign, and love will pay the rent," he declares
in "Thank You, Lord." From the title track comes: "All of God's children,
now going to Zion, I want to be among them." "Live & Let Live," even directly
quotes from the scriptures.
On the musical end, these guys are throwin' a party. The seven-piece band
keeps things colorful, free and easy throughout, with sharp horns, keyboard
and percussion in full force and echoing vocal harmonies.
In the midst of the soiree "This is Not the End" sets out to make a political
statement: "On the walls of shopping malls I see the images of Bob Marley.
Still Roman soldiers are outside slaying black youths of the nation."
One can't help but think of Marley throughout this record with the group's
rootical sound. But the Ithaca, N.Y.-based band, which has shared a stage
with a host of legendary reggae acts--including Burning Spear, The Wailers
and Maytals--also manage to have a contemporary edge.
This modern reggae sound is well represented on "Play On" and "Music is My
Only Friend," two songs which convey the power of the healing forces of music
in an uncertain world.
And that, my friend, is what it's all about.
John Brown's Body
Among Them (Shanachie) - 1999
PreAmp, 10/20/99
Reggae fans unite and buy this
album! The 13 songs on "Among Them," the second CD from John Brown's
Body, pack more punch than a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. And
after listening to it from beginning to end, I was ready for seconds.
-Joy Catania
Anatomically
Correct
"It's definitely a handicap and a challenge." explains Kevin Kinsella, with a patience that suggests he's accustomed to the raised eyebrows that often appear when he proclaims himself a reggae singer. "But the music is still young. You don't have to be a black man from the Mississippi Delta to play the blues anymore, and you don't have to be German to play Wagner and Bach. Sometimes it takes time for music to be universally accepted."
John Brown's Body is certainly helping the process along. While there's no ducking race as a curiosity factor, the band's sound is its most interesting feature. Musically, the players mix themes of hope, praise and celebration with the smooth harmonies and bass-rooted, "conscious" roots that reflect their favored sound, that of the golden era of Seventies reggae. Their newest album, Among Them, proves them worthy successors of that legacy and is perhaps the most persuasive argument for the universal acceptance the group preaches.
Kinsella seems well-suited to his unlikely roll as frontman, partially because his experience with reggae has been unusual form the outset. "I first discovered reggae while driving through Ireland with my dad when I was twelve years old," he announces. His father, a food-science professor then on sabbatical, was similarly captivated by the new music. The two immediately headed out to buy the album they'd heard snippets of on the car radio, which turned out to be the Bob Marley Classic Legend. "I thought it was Christian funk music," Kinsella recalls. "I just recognized the lyrics from church, so to me it was like the Bible being sung."
When he returned home to Ithaca, New York, Kinsella formed a precursor to John Brown's Body and dubbed the group the Tribulations. He and original bandmate Josh Newton managed to play around town, even opening for Toots and the Maytals. But things didn't get serious until 1989, when the members headed off to college in Boston. Newton enrolled in the prestigious Berklee School of Music and quickly recruited a full band.
"we were blessed to have such a crack group of musicians," Kinsella acknowledges. But the young virtuosos proved to be green when it came to Jamaican music. "The majority didn't know anything about reggae, so we literally taught them the ABCs. Of course, it was reggae through our eyes, and seeing that we weren't Jamaican, I think it lent a unique flavor to out music."
The group struggled through daily practice sessions to learn the new form, emerging with a melodic blend of reggae and rock. A high caliber of musicianship and an insistence on playing original music rather than relying on reggae standards eventually won the Tribulations strong local support. An impromptu tour convinced Newton to quit Berklee after three semesters. "We wanted to play South by Southwest in 1991, so we set up a tour o the way down, and another on the way up," Kinsella recalls. "After that, we just kept going." The following year, the band entered the Yamaha Soundcheck talent contest and surprised even themselves by beating 4,000 other bands and making it to the finals.
"We got flown out to Los Angeles, performed for a TV program and won," Kinsella explains. It was an impressive feat for a white reggae band in the pre-sublime era. "We were invited to continue and went over to Japan to compete internationally." he goes on. "But for whatever reason, we didn't land a record deal." Seemingly out of nowhere, a frustrated Kinsella stunned his bandmates by quitting the band shortly after the Japanese excursion. "I was young and felt we should have been further along," he recalls. "I thought we deserved more, I guess, and figured it would be better to go out gracefully. I didn't want to become a 'bar star,' so I just decided I was stepping out."
Kinsella also found himself increasingly drawn to the spiritual side of reggae, which had diminished in the Tribulations' sound as it developed a pop bend. "I left the group, stripped it down and started doing acoustic stuff," he remembers. at the time, Kinsella had o plans for his music beyond using it as an aid in his own spiritual fulfillment. But his sparse acoustic roots sound had an unexpected pied-piper effect on members of his former band. Drummer Tommy Benedett and sax player Lee Hamilton announced that they wanted to be part of it, and three other Tribs soon returned. Now operating with a clearer sense of purpose, the band was soon rechristened John Brown's Body. "We got recentered spiritually and musically and knew what we wanted," Kinsella says of the change. "We just thought it would be better to come with a new name and come fresh."
The new name holds distinct meaning for the group. John Brown was a white abolitionist who in 1859 tried to arm a slave insurrection by raiding a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. He was caught and hanged, but the story of a white man fighting for everyone's freedom captured the essence of the band's new mission. So did the beliefs of reggae's earliest players, bands like the Gladiators and the Meditations and Culture. Kinsella and friends found a sense of spiritual purpose in this unlikely combination of cultural idols. Still, to hear him explain it, a white reggae band doesn't seem at all unusual. "Bob Marley didn't tour the world for the benefit of black Jamaicans only," Kinsella points out. "He spoke to all nations of the earth. I love the humility of roots reggae, that it comes from a small nation looking out on the world and speaks a universal truth. Every motion has a point of origin, and reggae's Trenchtown, Jamaica. But that doesn't mean it has to end there. It's just the epicenter."
Others seem to have adopted this way of thinking in recent years, and in the wake of the success of artists such as Sublime, 311, Eminem and Kid Rock. Kinsella's second band is finding acceptance easier than his first did. John Brown's Body is signed to Shanachie, a prestigious label in the reggae realm, and made Rolling Stone's list of the top ten alternative bands in 1997. The band also appears in Prince of Central Park, a soon -to-be-released movie starting Harvey Keitel, performing the song "Music is my Only Friend," from Among Them.
The members of John Brown's Body have weathered the long road back to prominence.
In doing so, Kinsella himself has found redemption, regardless of race. "This
self-discovery is a personal reflection of the music we sing," he says. "It's
amazing education for me. I see unlimited growth potential. I don't know where
the music's going, but I know it's going to be good, and I know it's going
to be sincere."
John Brown's Body puts a new face
on the roots of Reggae
Denver Westword, 8/19/99
Reggae music has historically been sung by the disadvantaged, and although the members of John Brown's Body don't reflect the standard image of the oppressed or downtrodden, they overcome a sizable obstacle: They're white and they're from Boston.
-Joshua Green
John Brown's Body
Among Them (Shanachie)
Request, 5/99
In addition to promoting world music, New York's Shanachie Records occasionally
picks up a domestic reggae group. They have made a terrific choice by tapping
John Brown' s Body, a Boston ensemble that sounds strait from Jamaica. Named
for the famous slavery abolitionist, this seemingly nerdy group manages an incredibly
deep and cool-running groove. Leader Kevin Kinsella obviously has studies the
great Jamaican harmony groups and their "wall of melody" style, and his voice
sounds more like reggae mystic Burning Spear's than the oft-aped Bob Marley's.
Better yet, Kinsella's lyrics rarely sink to recycled Rastafarianism, focusing
instead on sincere hymns to nature, celebrations of music's power and songs
about the best, not the worst, in humanity. The music is equally enriched, as
the eight piece group delivers uplifting and crisscrossing melodies, sweet horn
blasts, and effectively tight dub breakdowns. Though-provoking linear notes
and song examinations by famed Marley biographer Roger Steffens cap this unusually
rich achievement in American reggae.
-Jim Meyer
John
Brown's Body Releases First Album
The band tries to remain close to roots reggae, which focuses more on horns
than guitars, Kinsella said. "There is a real insistence on composition,
classic composition vs. using only two chords, Kinsella said in a telephone
interview Friday. "We celebrate the song which should stand alone on
acoustics," he said. "Among Them" does just that, with a sound not unlike
the early Wailers in their sound and lyrics. Many of the songs surround a
spiritual focus, without singling out a specific religion. Sample lyrics
are:
Let God's love reign
From "Thank You Oh Lord" "We would hope the lyrics on our album are not
part of an agenda but more as invoking questions," Kinsella said. "We ant
to be part of a universal conversation with everybody, with God as a
mystery and love."
"Among Them" achieves it's purpose. After listening to the record, rather
than paying too much attention to John Brown's Body's message, you remember
how it makes you feel: relaxed and happy.
on a Major Recording Label
The Utah Statesman, 2/8/99
"Among Them" John Brown's Body's second album to date and the first released
by a major record label, gives the listener the feeling that they've been playing
since the early '70s. But their lead singer Kevin Kinsella is only 27.
and the love will pay the rent.
There's nothing on the table, Lord,
our money is gone and spent.
God give us shelter and protect us from all storm
I would be a fool to say it is I who have done this all myself.
A
White Boy Who Stole Reggae Kevin Kinsella must know how that blues-jazz singer and pianist who
many listeners mistook for being black, felt. Kinsella is the white boy -
a 27 year old Boston native - who stole reggae.
"A lot of people can't get over that hurdle, that we're Americans
playing rasta music," said Kinsella, lead singer, rhythm guitarist and
principle songwriter for the roots reggae band John Brown's Body. The
seven-piece band makes its aspen debut tonight at the Howling Wolf.
Kinsella and his mates may not have been born into the reggae
culture, but they have adopted it fully. The band's major label debut,
"Among Them," on the Shanachie label, digs deep into the roots of reggae.
Rather than play the slicked-up style of pop-reggae that has become
the biggest seller in Jamaica, John Brown's Body follows the path of
reggae's earliest practitioners, singing the praises of Jah, music and
tolerance. On "Among Them," the band plays the celebratory "Thank You Oh
Lord," the upbeat "Music is My Only Friend," and the all-inclusive "Rainbow
Chariot," all in a manner that is more connected to the spiritual side of
reggae - based on vocal beauty, group rhythm and devotional lyrics - than
its shadowy commercial side.
Almost as much as making music, Kinsella seems to have doing some
deep meditating on the spirit of reggae music. A reggae fanatic since his
early teens, when he first heard the music of Bob Marley and the
soundtrack to the film "The Harder They Come," Kinsella has come to the
conclusion that reggae is music not only from Jamaica, but from heaven as
well.
"I think God was pleased with this humbler music being made by this
tiny nation," said Kinsella, explaining reggae's enormous popularity across
the globe. "I think reggae is the poor people's music, the poor people's
gift. How else could people like Bob Marley and Winston Rodney [better
known as reggae singer Burning Spear], people from these poor farms, come
to be heard around the world?
"That's justice. When these people speak, people listen, around
the world. Reggae is the poor people's music, the sufferer's music and
justice."
But reggae, according to Kinsella, has in large part lost its way
in recent years. Many newer reggae bands have embraced a style which is
more aggressive in sound and spirit, a form of pop rather than roots music.
Kinsella has cringed as a number of respected reggae bands have moved
toward the more commercial sound over time. And to Kinsella, it is no
surprise that reggae has taken a step down in importance since its height
in the '70's.
"Reggae is not meant to be a commercial music, and when it got so
popular, maybe God got displeased. Maybe this music is cursed," said
Kinsella, who began playing reggae in a high school band, Tribulations,
that broke up over Kinsella's determination to stick to the roots style.
"Reggae music, to me, is sacred because it's calling out to God. All music
should be sacred, but reggae doubly so."
Apart from the move toward a slicker, guitar-driven sound, Kinsella
said that reggae has picked up a lot of baggage along the way. Listeners
associate reggae with a variety of concerns - rastafarianism, marijuana, a
return to Africa movement - that Kinsella thinks take away from the
predominant purpose of reggae, to celebrate the holy spirit, no matter what
it's called.
"Sometimes, I think reggae has this stigma that comes with it,"
said Kinsella. "It's got a religion that it carries on its back; it's
become very nationalistic, a race music.
"Where blues didn't pick that up. Blues is embraced by so many people. But
somehow reggae isn't allowed that. It's become attached to this repatriation
effort, going back to Africa. But when I first heard reggae, I heard the Bible
being sung. It was striking a heartbeat that everyone can relate to.
Aspen Times, 1/25/99
Years ago, Mose Allison sang, half-joking and half-serious about being the "white
boy who stole the blues."
-Stewart Oksenhorn
John
Brown’s Body Brings Reggae
But, that’s not what it’s all about, said rhythm guitar player and lead
singer, Kevin Kinsella. No matter where you’re from or the color of your
skin, reggae is about keeping true to the traditions. No, he and the other
members were not born in Jamaica or fancy themselves followers of the
Rasta religion, but they do stay true to the genre’s roots. Among the
band’s ensemble of guitars, percussion and horns, no where will you find
the cheesey synthesized beats, which have become more prevalent over the
years in the world of reggae.
John Brown’s Body, as described by Kinsella, stays true to the vintage
sound, which saw its heyday in the mid 1970s.
“It’s good roots reggae from before it got loaded down with too much
baggage — when it got too genre-fied and typified,” he said.
Concerning the watered-down, radio-friendly reggae geared for mass appeal,
Kinsella said music as whole doesn’t get much worse than this.
“Bad reggae is twice as bad as other bad music because it’s so sacred. It
really leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” he said. “Bad pop music is
admissible, but bad reggae is an offense.”
Towns scattered throughout the Northeast have served as a testament to
Kinsella’s sentiments, as the group regularly sells out venues in their
Boston home town and around the New England region.
Tonight marks the band’s first jaunt into Vail for a performance, although
several members have been here as part of a former ensemble, Tribulation.
Kinsella said it was with Tribulation that he came to appreciate audiences
throughout the West, Vail definitely included. For this visit, Vail marks
the band’s first stop on a five-week tour in support of their latest
record, “Among Them.” The album is described as a mix of fresh tunes,
which, as defines the band, holds true to the reggae traditions.
“I’m really pleased with it. I’m really proud of it,” Kinsella said. “I
don’t think there’s another record out there that sounds quite like it.”
From Vail, the band hits a few other mountain towns, heads out to the West
Coast for a few gigs, then takes it back East via the southern route
through Arizona, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas and Louisiana. The most
exciting date on the tour, Kinsella said, is the big Bob Marley Fest, Feb.
13 in Miami.
Besides their number of live shows, John Brown’s Body will also be able to
be seen and heard up on the big screen. This spring, the band will appear
as street performers in the movie, “Prince of Central Park,” starring Harvey
Keitel and Kathleen Turner. Kinsella said the group didn’t have the opportunity
to meet the big stars, but said it was great experience nonetheless.
Back to the Bear
The Vail Daily, 1/19/99
John Brown’s Body may not seem like much of reggae band at first glance — an
all American-born seven-piece ensemble, with only one member sporting dreads,
the rest white boys with cropped dos.
-Keith Miller
Denver Sidewalk
It's no surprise that the band is attracting attention. Among Them is
slickly produced and never attempts to be anything more than smooth,
straightforward dance-hall roots reggae. Kinsella, lead singer, rhythm
guitarist and chief songwriter, is obviously into the music for the love of
reggae, as opposed to the ska-soaked bandwagoneers of late. His lyrics are
spritual - "We try to promote godly works," he says - and his music is a
tribute to reggae masters of yore (perhaps too much of a tribute in Among
Them's 6th track "Thank you Oh Lord," which sounds undeniably like Bob
Marley's "Three Little Birds) with its heavy bass and lilting, Caribbean
backbeats.
The band, despite its righteous "for the people" and "praise of Jah" exclamations
(or perhaps because of them), is a must-see for any fan of reggae or of jam
bands. You'll be grooving to the beat all night.
Kevin Kinsella formed John Brown's Body in 1994 to pursue the roots reggae sound
he'd been enamored of since his early teens. So far, so good. The band's self-released
debut, 1997's All Time, made Rolling Stone's alternative Top 10, and the band's
'98 release, Among Them, was picked up by a major label, Shanachie.
-Tim Mullins
© 1999 Ariel Publicity and John Brown's Body