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Clinton Fearon | |
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| Birth name | Clinton Anthony Fearon |
| Born | 13 January 1951 |
| Origin | Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica |
| Genres | Reggae |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician, producer |
| Instrument(s) | Bass, guitar, percussion |
Clinton Anthony Fearon (born January 13, 1951) is a Jamaican reggae singer and musician. He has lived in Seattle, Washington since 1987.
Clinton Fearon was born near Kingston, and quickly moved to St. Catherine, a rural Jamaican province. Fearon was heavily influenced by the music found at his local Seventh-day Adventist church. He returned to Kingston at age 16, where he founded his first band, The Brothers. Errol Grandison, who first encountered Fearon through his work with The Brothers, quickly offered him a chance to replace David Webber as the third member of The Gladiators. [1] He joined the group in 1969, first as a singer and then as a bass player and background vocalist after the departure of both Grandison and David Webber. He remained with the group until 1987, often appearing as the leader on songs including "Chatty Chatty Mouth", "Rich Man Poor Man", "Get Ready" and "Let Jah Be Praised". During these years, he also worked as a session-man for a range of artists, including Coxsone, Lee Perry, Joe Higgs, Yabby You, Joseph Hookim and Prince Tony Robinson.
By the late 1980s, Fearon began to feel artistically crowded after nearly two decades of playing with the same band. As such, Fearon left the band and settled in Seattle, Washington, following the Gladiators' 1987 American tour, in order to launch his solo career. His first project in the United States, The Defenders, enjoyed moderate success with the EP "Rock Your Bones," released in 1989. The group was short-lived and disbanded in 1992.
In 1994, Fearon reorganied his musical vision by forming The Boogie Brown Band. The group's debut album, "Disturb the Devil," marks the beginning of Fearon's successful solo career and features Barbara Kennedy on keyboards, Lamar Lofton on bass, Girt Bolo on drums, and John Saba on guitar. He followed this release with a series of other albums produced by his newborn record label, Boogie Brown Productions.
Notable releases under Boogie Brown Productions also include Mi An' Mi Guitar, a 2005 acoustic album that refashions classic Gladiators recordings such as "Richman Poorman" and "Streets Of Freedom." Clinton Fearon followed Mi An' Mi Guitar with his 2006 album Vision, which is composed of long, melodic songs that masterfully complement his earlier solo releases. In 2008, Clinton Fearon released Faculty Of Dub, featuring all original music as well as his own bass playing for the first time in nearly two decades.
Clinton Fearon splits his time between Seattle and France and continues to tour with The Boogie Brown Band. His 2012 album Heart And Soul reached number 20 on the World Music Charts Europe in August 2012. [2] In 2016, he released the album This Morning. [3]
Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of Africans and those in the African Diaspora, including the spiritual side of Rastafari, black liberation, revolution and the honoring of God, called Jah by Rastafarians. It is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor. Lyrical themes include spirituality and religion, struggles by artists, poverty, black pride, social issues, resistance to fascism, capitalism, corrupt government and racial oppression. A spiritual repatriation to Africa is a common theme in roots reggae.
Manley Augustus Buchanan, better known as Big Youth, is a Jamaican rapper and singer, mostly known for his work during the 1970s.
Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser known by his stage-name Mad Professor, is a Guyanese-born British dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music's second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He has collaborated with reggae artists such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly and Robbie, Pato Banton, Jah Shaka and Horace Andy, as well as artists outside the realm of traditional reggae and dub, such as Sade, Massive Attack, The Orb, Gaudi, the Brazilian DJ Marcelinho da Lua, Grace Jones, and Perry Farrell.
Heartbeat Records is an independent record label based in Burlington, Massachusetts. The label specializes in Jamaican music.
Aston Francis Barrett CD, often called "Family Man" or "Fams" for short, is a retired Jamaican musician and Rastafarian.
Pressure Sounds is a British DIY record label, specializing in releasing reggae music. Run by Pete Holdsworth, it is one of the most enduring reggae labels in the UK, specializing in reissuing obsolete tunes. It was originally a subsidiary of On-U Sound.
The Gladiators are a Jamaican roots reggae band, most popular during the 1970s. The core was Albert Griffiths, Clinton Fearon and Gallimore Sutherland. Their two most famous albums are Trenchtown Mix Up (1976) and Proverbial Reggae (1978) with songs such as "Hearsay", "Jah Works", "Dreadlocks the Time is Now". "Mix Up", "Music Makers from Jamaica", and "Soul Rebel" – a song written by The Wailers. Gladiators also cooperated with the toaster U-Roy.
Earl "Chinna" Smith, a.k.a. Earl Flute and Melchezidek the High Priest, is a Jamaican guitarist active since the late 1960s. He is most well known for his work with the Soul Syndicate band and as guitarist for Bob Marley & the Wailers, among others, and has recorded with many reggae artists, appearing on more than 500 albums.
Willi Williams is a Jamaican reggae and dub musician and producer. He is known as the "Armagideon Man" after his hit, "Armagideon Time", first recorded in 1977 at Studio One in Kingston. The song was covered by The Clash as the flipside of their "London Calling" single.
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Ansel Collins is a Jamaican musician, composer, singer, songwriter and producer, best known for his work with Dave Barker as Dave and Ansel Collins.
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Kevin Kinsella is a reggae and roots rock musician who has participated in 28 studio albums since 1987. He is a founding member of John Brown's Body and 10 Foot Ganja Plant. He lives in Ithaca, New York. He has been noted as one of the pioneers of the American reggae scene and has been called "Father of East Coast Reggae".
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Tribo de Jah is a reggae band from Brazil formed in 1986 at the Maranhão's capital city, São Luís is known as the Brazilian Jamaica, by Fauzi Beydoun, who in that time was a multinational CEO coming from Ivory Coast in África, that maintained a successful reggae program on a radio in town. It was in this school where the members met. Four band members are fully blind while the fifth has partial vision.
Natty Nation is an American rock and reggae band from Madison, Wisconsin. Founded in 1995, as of April 20, 2017, the lineup included Demetrius "Jah Boogie" Wainwright, Aaron Konkol AKA Eyes of Moses, Anthony Paul Willis (drums), & Nick Czarnecki (guitar). The group has released several studio albums since their 1996 debut The Journey Has Just Begun..., in 2010 Isthmus (newspaper) named their 1998 release Earth Citizen one of the "top 25 Madison pop albums of all time," writing that "Natty Nation's mix of roots reggae and hard rock proved unique and gained a following that remains today," and their 2016 release, Divine Spark debuted at #3 on the Billboard (magazine) Reggae Chart.
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