CRUCIAL BANKIE
ALBUM: Shakedown
ARTISTE: Crucial Bankie
LABEL: V-Records
CRUCIAL BANKIE'S 'Shakedown' is a 12-song trip into roots rock reggae, in which he takes a measured approach to his music, which is no less effective for the relatively slower pace at which most of the songs move.
They are very much moving.
With live instruments, well placed, uncomplicated harmonies and the singer leaving space for the horns (which are a strong feature of the album), Shakedown is a trip into the taproot of reggae that has sunk into the Eastern Caribbean.
Crucial Bankie is from St. Kitts.
ORDER OF THE SONGS
Some thought has been put into the order of the songs on Shakedown, which begins with the sound of waves and birds, the prelude to the slow Dreams (In my dreams what I see/All people must be free/From this misery/Scientific atrocity), then goes into the slower 'Love Keep Shining' ("you don't have to be my slave/I don't have to be your fool/Just to love you..."). This pattern is repeated with the third and fourth songs, How Excellent and High Life Music, as it is in what I consider the heart of Shakedown, the seventh to the 11th songs.
Track seven is the title track, a bouncy testament to the power of reggae. The combination of danceability and though-provoking is irresistible, as Bankie sings Reggae going to shake down earth ... /Rocking yu state an' church/Reggae a go shake dung earth/We mek apartheid splurt, a strong horn-line, tinkling piano and well-placed harmonies complementing the insistence on Bankie. And there is an okay guitar solo in it as well.
Shakedown is followed by the beautiful Trouble Springs, which is sparing with lyrics, strong on feeling and contains a poignant harmonica. While 'Shakedown' is an ode to the power of reggae on the world outside the singer, 'Trouble Springs' is testament to the healing qualities of the art to the singer and, by extension, listener. Crucial Bankie sings on a slow rhythm When trouble spring/All I do is sing/Ya ga ying yah ying yeah.... That 'ya ga ying' sound dominates throughout Trouble Springs; no meaning is given and none is needed.
CALL TO ACTION
The faster, yet still measured, call to action March To Pretoria is uncompromising with Rise up commando/Let us march to Pretoria/the land our forefather controlled/before Victoria/where men of peace are living in genocide/the righteous and the innocent, face racist homicide". Africa remains on Bankie's mind in the faster 'Slaughter', where he sings (at some points with well placed reverb):
You're sitting by and
watching the slaughter
Down in Rwanda and Burundi
We're calling on the
United Nations
I an I know that Jah Jah
is watching you?
Just maybe my personal favourite on 'Shakedown' (and I did not think I could have been more delighted than with the title track) finishes the quintet of songs that I consider the heart of the album. It is Underground Railroad, which begins with Swing low Mother Harriet/swinging in a freedom chariet (ok, so he bends 'chariot' a bit) around horns which have a sound like those on Marty Robbins song). Then in the first line Bankie sings lyrics that capture feeling, philosophy and determination:
"Give her Liberty or death
Talking about Mother Harriet
Vowed never to be taken alive
So she rode with a rifle by
her side
And she always kept it load
Riding on the underground
Railroad".
A female singer in the song is a bit weak, though, but not so much as to spoil the song.
Shakedown ends with matters of death, or rather, matters after death. The music is (dead) slow and Bankie sings Won't cry no more/when we get over there/whon't die no more/won't starve no more/won't sin no more.
And in Love he makes an acronym of the word, so that it becomes Lasting, Organising, Visualising Everlasting.
Track listing
1. Dreams
2. Love Keep Shining
3. How Excellent
4. High Life Music
5. Nah Give Up
6. Love
7. Shakedown Earth
8. Trouble Springs
9. March To Pretoria
10. Slaughter
11. Underground Railroad
12. Over There
