Della Manley - Contributed

DELLA MANLEY is familiar with the view from high in the hills where Nomdmi is, looking down from a related property, Nyumbani.

The two are related not only by proximity but also through their owners, Nyumbani once being the home of former Prime Minister Michael Manley, Edna and Norman Manley's son.

Nyumbani literally provided Della Manley with a view on life which became material for her songwriting muse and resulted in City Lights, from her 1998 debut album Ashes on the Windowsill.

city lights

"I was having a conversation with Michael Manley about how gorgeous the view was. He said yes, but on the other hand, the city lights marked a different reality. And the house was positioned not to view the city lights necessarily, but the serenity of the hills," she told The Sunday Gleaner.

City Lights is about what is concealed by the glow and the distance:

"Looking down from the hillside

Looking up from the shore

A thousand fireflies

How do I close my eyes

To the truth that is a lie

The skyline is a frontline ...

Another night in paradise

Sleeping on the sidewalk he calls home

He heaves a sigh

It's a lullaby

In the shadow of wealth that is untold."

Della Manley wrote City Lights in the early to mid-1980s, utilising the guitar. Most of the work on Ashes on the Window Sill was done at Riverside Studios in Gordon Town, St Andrew, where Ray Hitchins and Mark Golding co-produced the set.

"I sang it at his funeral. I had finished it by then," Della said. She had not yet completed the album, though. Michael Manley died on March 6, 1997. "He always encouraged me with my music," she said.

She has since released another album, Barbican Square (2006), as well as singles, including a cover of Junior Byles' Fade Away.