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SpiritLand

by Toshi Reagon

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Buzzard Loop 03:23
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Hallelu 03:04
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about

Notes On #SPIRITLAND

This record is dedicated to My Mama Bernice Johnson Reagon and My Grandma Beatrice Wise Johnson. All of the songs on this record represent something I had to have vibrate through my body. A few come from the rhythm of my grandma rocking babies to sleep. My Grandma was strong and loving. Powerful and clear. She had her hands on every child that passed through her way until she left the earth. I know she watches over us in heaven because that is where she intended to go. My Mom is her third child. I am my Moms first. To this day my Mom will sign off on emails and text message saying, "take care of my first born". She calls me King Toshi, she says she is the Queen Mother. My Mom and I travel the universe of time and space in and out of life and death and sharing multiple planes of existence. She says, "I was her before I was born and when I die, I will still be around". She is a SuperStar on the earth and she has spent the currency of her life so well and so purposely. The reason she is here is to remind us to vibrate sound through our bodies so that we can know our home within ourselves. We are descendants of people brutalized by slavery and the violence and horror it birthed. We are decedents of musicians, priest, innovators, folks who put their hands in the dirt and grow food that sustains life. Who walk to the water, who pass on all the information we need through songs and text and the way they build houses and schools and places to worship God and their everyday living. Some of these songs come to honor this path.
The Sun Will Never Go Down,
Buzzard Loop
Hallelu,
Jacobs Ladder
Hush Lil Baby
Let your Light Shine

I had two hard hard years recently. 2016, 2017. Something about the summer of each year bent me deeper than any other time of the year. I was in the studio all the time composing for different projects including Octavia E. Butler's Parable Of The Sower The Opera One day I started writing other songs not the ones I was supposed to be writing but the ones I needed to write to walk out of where I was. People's Meditation was one of those. I am playing instruments I don't really play, and It has one line I need to say over and over slowly.
Oh My
Oh My
You are so beautiful. Yes! You are.
This was to the world and to my friends and to myself.
It is a meditation and singing it change my direction.
Round and Round is for Tashawn Reagon and Yeah me too and anyone who needs it. There are a lot of vocals. I imagined what it would be like if Sweet Honey in the Rock sang on this song. Big Sweet Honey fans should be able to hear some signature hooks. When I played it for my Mom, she heard Nitanju Bolade Casel vibes in the bridge. Let Me Remember is an ask to let the good times take up residence in your heart and body and let that pleasure be the balm. I realize a thousand good things can happen and one shitty thing can close up everything. It is also an acceptance that sometimes the worst things happen, and we have to find our refuge from the pain. It is difficult work and sometimes impossible to salve in Good. Eventually if you want to live you must find a way. We Got No Worries is the last song I recorded. John did the final mix a couple of days before we mastered. It takes the Buzzard Loop beat near the top of the record. I was thinking of the brave and soulful activist who wake up to do something like get a call to come and stop ICE from deporting a brother who has been in sanctuary for 11 months bit.ly/2LAyrec . Patricia Okoumou who climbed the Statue of Liberty to stand for the children separated from their parents, an act of war and violence on the bodies of children. bit.ly/2EJ2Ru1 The people who wake up and have a deep and meaningful relationship with the earth Leah Penniman Soul Fire Farm #farmimgwhileBlack
This is the time for it and it is happening everywhere while we the people hold the roots of our community and insist that Love, Generosity, and holding a pact with each other and the planet must be at the foundation of our existence. With no more time to spare and no more avenues to travel obliviously. The ones, the we's that wake up and take to the business of Freedom are on my mind always. At the end of We Got No Worries is a call. "Hey, do you feel alright?" the answer comes back from the community- "Hey We got no worries here" OK! We certainly are upset to be fighting in these conditions. Fighting for basic human rights. The rise of White Supremacy is a call for destruction and violence. We are hurt that at a time when we need to focus our view on our living on this earth. We are fighting to hold human dignity, to be collaborative in our living and to not once again be assaulted and stolen from by the already powerful, White and Wealthy. As we travel through, We Got No Worries because we are doing what is right to do. Our hearts are at peace and we follow in the footsteps of our ancestors who passed down this song medicine living and loving through the worst of what humans have to offer each other. They did this, but this was not their I am alive life plan, and this is not how we want to live. There is a lot more we could do if we didn't have to fight so hard to breathe. Let Your Light Shine closes this recording. My mom is leading this, I am singing with her and playing the guitar.

Let your light shine shine shine
Let your light shine shine shine
There is someone down in the valley trying to get home

#SPIRITLANDToshiReagon
12/22/18
LOVE
Toshi

SPIRTLAND
Produced by Toshi Reagon
Recorded by John Davis and Todd Carder, The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn
Let Me Remember, Recorded by Ken Rich Grand Street Recording, Inc.
Mixed by John Davis, The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn NY
Mastered by Alex DeTurk, The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn
Allison Miller, Drums on The Sun Will Never Go Down, Round and Round.
Allison Loggins-Hulll, Flute on Jacobs Ladder
Bernice Johnson Reagon Vocals on Let Your Light Shine
Toshi plays and sings everything else.
Album art by YK Hong
MOUNTAIN Commissioned by J. Bob Alotta

credits

released December 21, 2018

Produced by Toshi Reagon

All Vocals and Instruments are by Toshi Reagon except for Allison Miller playing drums on The Sun Will Never Go Down, Round and Round, and Allison Loggins- HUll playing Flute on Jacobs Ladder.

All songs recorded by John Davis and Todd Carder, The Bunker Studio
Brooklyn NY
Except for Let Me Remember by Ken Rich, Grand Street Recording, Brooklyn NY
Let Your Line Shine, I am not sure about that one.

All Songs Mixed by John Davis, The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn NY

Artwork by YK Hong

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Toshi Reagon Brooklyn, New York

I make Music.

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