Ramsay

Summer is the time when many Jamaican entertainers pack their suitcases and take flight en masse for gigs in cooler climes, where the inhabitants are emerging from their winter cocoons. Among them this year is Richie Ramsay, who left in early June for a three-month European trip, starting in Germany with the possibility of ventures to other countries on the continent.

Ramsay will not, however, in the main be joining the flock at the many festivals across Europe. Armed with his guitar and 13-track album, Riot & Revolution, released in Germany in January 2007, the very strong message-centred music-maker will be focusing on lifestyle events.

"The music really wider than a box. We a try kick out the side of the box and flatten the box so it can spread over the place," he tells The Sunday Gleaner. "We not focusing on the reggae shows and clubs and festivals. We are focusing on events with alternate lifestyles," he said, adding that it is about making a difference.

'not into entertainment'

So on Mother Earth's Cry Ramsay asks:

"When you turn on the lights

Do you think you pay the real price

You're always complaining that your light bill's too high

But do you know how many people die

Do you know how many wars they fight

Sometimes spill more blood than oil

Still you do not see the light."

"We not into entertainment. People carry messages through poetry, even how they walk, but my gift is as a songwriter," he said.

Some of the performances will be done acoustic style, while others will be with a band. He does not have a problem finding material to utilise his allotted time; in fact, he tells The Sunday Gleaner that "the real challenge is choosing songs when you have a limited amount of time".

In terms of his music, Ramsay does not categorise what he produces; however, he is definite that "I would not want to be associated with anything termed pop".

Also among the tracks on Riot & Revolution are Do I No Favours, Seek Ye First, Always The Young, Judge Not and Revolution. His 'Unplugged' songs include Plastic World, These Hands, So This is Love and Promised Land.

the root of suffering

When The Sunday Gleaner asks Ramsay if he is putting people on a guilt trip or pricking their consciences with Mother Earth's Cry, he replies, "Let's just say a Nigerian living in Nigeria would understand what it means, living in a country that exports most of the world's oil and does not have enough to light a lamp." And he talks about those living in the Andes, where arsenic goes into the sky and comes back down as rain.

"It is not so much the people who are consuming as the people suffering from the consumption," Ramsay said. And when The Sunday Gleaner asks if materialism is at the root of the suffering, Ramsay laughs and says, "No. Plain ignorance."

just spirituality

In Call To Arms, Ramsay refers to the Garden of Gethsemane, but he is not taking a religious perspective. "The Garden of Gethsemane is the suffering everybody has to go through to come out on the other side of being a soldier. I myself was a soldier," he says. "In the US Army they call it the crucible. In Jamaica we call it hell."

"It is just spirituality, not Christianity."

Ramsay pens a good love (as in specifically the male-female relationship love) song and in So This is Love he sings:

"So this is what love does to me

Make me feel so fricking high

I just have to hear your voice

And I feel so fricking high."

The Sunday Gleaner asks Ramsay if he sees love as a narcotic and he replies, "Sure it is. If you love and you're not stupid, what kind of love is that. When you're in love you're supposed to be senseless." And has he been on that particular four-letter high? "On many occasions," a laughing Ramsay affirms.

On Just Desserts, Ramsay notes:

"Your bombs make no distinction between army and civilians

Where you lay your minefield down was my children's playground

Yet I mustn't hate you you are just a world police."

not about the usa

The Sunday Gleaner asks the obvious question, if it is about the USA, and Ramsay says, "It would be so cliché to say America, and so easy." However, it is more about the "dominant countries in the world", referring to recent multiple killings in Israel and Sri Lanka. "It's just amazing to me how much money we spend to kill off each other, then turn around and say we have no money for food and water," Ramsay said.

When he returns to Jamaica Ramsay will be heading back to the studio (Riot & Revolution was recorded at guitarist Gibby Morrison's studio) and he is also looking towards his next release. "I already have a name for my next album. We have all the songs already. We don't know which ones will make the cut," Ramsay says.

But he is ready.