CJ Solomon was a New Orleans-based musician, songwriter and producer now based in Puerto Rico.
This new release from Warrior King includes some guitar overdubs I added to this track by Sam Hitchcock Tilton with members of the Shepherd Band II.
bio
I was born in Buffalo, NY, into a family that traveled (and moved) a great deal and valued it as education. My father's work took the family to Kingston, Jamaica in the mid-70's, a short time after I started studying drums. The 'inside-out' drum grooves in reggae fascinated me immediately. My Dad lived opposite a club with live reggae, and the music of Marley and others was exploding all over Jamaican radio.
Music took a backseat to studies at Cornell and my early NYC advertising career, but a marketing & sales job with Pearce Amplifiers brought me back to Buffalo and closer to music (as I also handled artist relations and demo'd amps a lot). By then I'd taught myself some bass and then guitar (drums too loud for apartment settings) and one day I walked in on a reggae open mic with my Tele. Despite never really having gigged much even on drums I was suddenly hired to play guitar in a very busy reggae showband led by 5-time Appolo Theater winner Tanya Diona where much of the music was over my head. I learned fast. So eventually I wound up gigging a lot of reggae 'n' such all over Western New York, playing drums and later guitar for the Dreadbeats ("reggae, ska and mardi gras" - my first intro to second line grooves and Nola funk), and co-founding (with Neville Francis) and drumming in the regionally successful Strictly Riddim for almost a decade.
A first visit to New Orleans (aside from coming here for Mardi Gras at 8) got me fascinated. The next led to a very sudden move down here, not long before Katrina. I was back the first day they'd let me return. These days I'm still playing some reggae, but enjoy the rock and funk gigs as well. There's nothing like being a musician in New Orleans, and no way to describe it.
"We got grace and mercy all over us." - Chuck Perkins
Music took a backseat to studies at Cornell and my early NYC advertising career, but a marketing & sales job with Pearce Amplifiers brought me back to Buffalo and closer to music (as I also handled artist relations and demo'd amps a lot). By then I'd taught myself some bass and then guitar (drums too loud for apartment settings) and one day I walked in on a reggae open mic with my Tele. Despite never really having gigged much even on drums I was suddenly hired to play guitar in a very busy reggae showband led by 5-time Appolo Theater winner Tanya Diona where much of the music was over my head. I learned fast. So eventually I wound up gigging a lot of reggae 'n' such all over Western New York, playing drums and later guitar for the Dreadbeats ("reggae, ska and mardi gras" - my first intro to second line grooves and Nola funk), and co-founding (with Neville Francis) and drumming in the regionally successful Strictly Riddim for almost a decade.
A first visit to New Orleans (aside from coming here for Mardi Gras at 8) got me fascinated. The next led to a very sudden move down here, not long before Katrina. I was back the first day they'd let me return. These days I'm still playing some reggae, but enjoy the rock and funk gigs as well. There's nothing like being a musician in New Orleans, and no way to describe it.
"We got grace and mercy all over us." - Chuck Perkins