When one listens to the music of Grammy-winning reggae artistRoy “Gramps” Morgan, one might assume he was born and raised with nothing but the sun above him, blue water beside him and the sand underneath him.
But he was born in Brooklyn.
Yet, his island heritage lives within every note he sings and every word he speaks. He radiates sunshine in a world far too riddled with pain. And on his new albumPositive Vibrationand through his music, he finds a way to infuse the lessons he has learned about hope and love and acceptance into an increasingly dark world.
And he does it all, straight from Nashville.
“The greatest inspiration during this project was the wonderful energy of Nashville,” Morgan, 45, says in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “The mountains in Williamson County are just breathtaking. It reminds me of Jamaica. And that’s why this is my home.”
Gramps Morgan.Joseph Llanes
That feeling was further cemented many years ago, when Morgan played the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and began to feel the onslaught of love from all those who found themselves sitting in those holy pews.
“It’s such a place of purity,” Morgan says of the legendary venue that he found himself in on that fateful night while on tour with India.Arie. “No hype, no big explosions, no confetti. It’s about the simplicity, the pureness of a singer singing along with a guitar. At the end of the set, I just threw up my hands and said, ‘I’m moving to Nashville.'”
And he did. And it was there in Music City that he found a new creative pulse that beats through his 15 track LP that includes collaborations with artists such as Shaggy, India.Arie and Lybran (The Rum Boss) and serves as the first solo project from the accomplished singer/songwriter in nine years.
“Country music is in my DNA,” he explains. “Nobody realizes that country music is one of the biggest forms of music in the Caribbean. When I grew up and I know when my mother grew up, we were listening to Charlie Pride, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis … that’s the country music that I grew up on.”
It’s those influences that do in fact find their way intoPositive Vibration, especially since the project brought Morgan together with producer multi-platinum recording artist/producer Johnny Reid.
Yet another beautiful inspiration for Morgan’s new music is his wife Annabelle, who serves as the muse behind songs such as “A Woman Like You” and “Paradise.”
“I channeled her,” explains Morgan, who co-wrote 13 of the 15 tracks on the project. “It’s just that energy of giving. It’s just about being thankful for the female gender, her beauty, what she’s capable of, her brains, her honesty, her truth as a mother, as a wife, as an entrepreneur, as a worker. And it’s like, man, I just want to give you your flowers. This is just a sign of dedication, devotion and appreciation.”
It’s an appreciation for the gifts of life that Morgan focuses on these days.
“This pandemic has been my greatest teacher,” he concludes. “It has taught all of us that we can live with less. The simple things matter more than we think. There is a power in simplicity.”
source: people.com
