By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Danny Browne at the controls. - Contributed
IN 1997 AT the height of his success as a music producer, Danny Browne's wife, Collette, began attending church regularly and she took the children with her. Danny decided after a while to accompany them.
He did not have his eyes on Jesus. "I was enjoying success and it wasn't even apparent to me that I needed salvation," he said. Then one day, while in the congregation at Swallowfield Chapel, Kingston, a simple message was preached that changed his life.
The part that jolted him was when the preacher, Robert Gilbert, bass player in the church band, quoted from the Scripture which said "Unless you become like one of these little ones, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
"I knew right then in my heart that I was not like that child. I was responsible for me. I had my own destiny in my hands. It was all about me. I had empire. I had money. Everything was mine. Why should I change my life? But that message that I would never enter the Kingdom haunted me. That day I made a decision- I intended to go to Heaven. No matter what my earthly possessions were, I wanted to go to Heaven I went to the altar that day. I made a commitment. It was a choice that was very sobering. From then it has been no turning back. I never regretted it," he said. The year was 1998.
HINDSIGHT
In hindsight, Danny acknowledges that his wife, Collette, who had gotten saved about eight months before him, radiated positive changes in her life and what he saw in her life made it easier for him to surrender his life to Christ.
"I saw joy in her. And for me, being a man of the world at the time, enjoying the success of the world yet I was not feeling that fulfilled. I mean I was not happy in the sense of having internal peace. I was confident in myself. However, all the business relationships was to me meaningless a chasing after the wind."
Shortly after getting saved, Danny took a radical decision. He lived out his contractual obligations for Main Street Records which he formed in 1992 and then he shut down the business and went on a three-year personal Bible-study retreat.
He explained that as a new Christian, he was being bombarded by all kinds of views about Jesus. Some of which assaulted his infantile faith. "I said this can't be right. I am a Christian, yet I don't know Christ personally. I needed to take that time to know him personally. I devoted my life to rea.ding the Bible. Those three years were the most peaceful time I have ever experienced. And the thing that was so amazing was how the Lord provided for me and my family through all that."
At the end of the retreat, he reported: "It was almost as if I saw myself through the eyes of God. I could see myself for who I was with my potentials and faults." The retreat, he said, taught him the importance of accountability partnerships. "Christians tend to hug up pet sins. It is important the we lean on each other, that we can build each other up especially us as men."
Coming out of his retreat, Danny felt embolden to continue to keep Main Street Records closed. On the other hand, Main Street Gospel was born.
"That was one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make. Most of the guys I'd worked with were guys who started with me. These were artistes who did not have a real career before. We had all come together to build Main Street now they had to look at their careers and do what they had to do," Browne recalled. These artistes included: General Degree, Buccaneer, Red Rat, Goofy, Hawkeye, and Crissy D.
FIVE GOSPEL ALBUMS
With his embrace of the gospel genre, Danny's financial fortunes declined. "Sometimes tears come to my eyes when I reflect on how many (financial) challenges I have had when I gave up secular work. I mean this is all I do. I am a musician full-time- It was difficult and stressful. It was tearing me apart. But everytime I reached rockbottom, the Lord provided for me. Everytime I thought this was it, there was no way out, the door was locked, I am in a dark tunnel without a light at the end the Lord would just provide in the nick of time. Something miraculous would just happen. He would provide just enough to take me through. And I say, I know that God is real. There's nobody who can tell me seh Jesus isn't the Almighty."
Since going gospel, Danny has produced five albums which are having an impact on both the secular and Christian markets. The albums are: Yow Reggae Gospel Street Gospel Chapters 1 & 2, Chevelle Franklin's Joy, Prodigal Son's Radikal Prodigal and Junior Tucker's Ready for the Rapture which have all topped the gospel charts locally and around the Caribbean.
Initially, his brand of hardcore dancehall gospel got resistance in some churches. But the exposure of Christian artistes in evangelistic crusades did much to break the back of resistance. Christian artistes like Prodigal Son, whom he discovered during his three-year hiatus would not just deejay but share graphically his testimony as one who once touted a gun. "And then people started to hear and take note of the lyrics in the song," he said.
"One thing I can tell people- The number of people who have given their lives to the Lord after hearing our music on the radio is incredible. At my office sometimes you hear messages left on the voice-mail of people thanking us because they made decisions after they heard a song on the radio that really ministered to them.
Danny, 42, has been married to wife Collette for 16 years. Collette, an accountant by training, also works in the business. He posits: "Maybe if Jesus was not in our lives right now, probably we would not be together." They have three children, Djuvane 21, Nicholas, 16 and Jaida, 3.
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
He and his family continue to worship at Swallowfield Chapel where the fellowship has been most receptive to him and where he serves as band leader. He has high praises for Pastor David Henry and other leaders of the church which effectively facilitates his spiritual growth. At present, he is being groomed to lead a zone-care prayer group - one of the flagship ministries of this church which has earned it much respect in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.
"My purpose," says Danny, "is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth through music." He has begun that quest by taking an interest in the artistes who worked with him. He reports: "A few of them have made decisions. I will not call their names because I do not want to embarrass anybody. I have, myself, led some to the Lord. One of them has just started to attend Swallowfield. I see the Lord working in them. I see their attitudes changing. I am prepared to be patient with them. The Lord was patient with me."
