Talking Dreads

TALKING DREADS: NOT SO SAME AS IT EVER WAS

Talking Dreads began as a project born from the audacious notion that hardcore Heads-lovers wouldn’t mind a tinkering or two with their favorite Talking Heads tunes, and there is a lot of great music here that will make you stop, listen and smile a little bit more as you’re grooving along to the joyous rhythms and jubilant spirit of the island vibe.

Talking Dreads is the brainchild of Head Dread, Mystic Bowie, a Jamaican artist whose long and close relationship with Chris Franz 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 then recorded and performed with Tom Tom Club for nearly twenty years and continues to bear fruit from their unending collaborations.

This inaugural effort from Talking Dreads features an amazing lineup of stellar reggae stalwarts including Freddie McGregor [‘Rastaman Camp’, Bobby Babylon], ska-guitar master Ernest Ranglin (session player and arranger of Millie’s smash ‘My Boy Lollipop’, the Melodians ‘Rivers Of Babylon’, and countless other tracks], and Tarrus Reilly (‘Start Anew’, ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’) as well as a little help from punk-pop diva Cindy Wilson of The B-52s (‘Rock Lobster’, ‘Love Shack’).

Talking Heads’ music was a formative influence on Mystic Bowie since childhood. The marriage of Talking Heads jagged, Rhode Island art school punk with bouncing, sunny Caribbean rhythms appealed to him because “reggae’s dance-inspiring, feel-good vibe is universal as are many of Talking Heads’ songs. And don’t forget their intelligent, powerful lyrics! I’m convinced that there are a lot of music lovers who will appreciate this fusion as much as I do”.