Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts,15-20 July 1997

Martha's Vineyard - good enough for the President, good enough for me as I would seh. My wife Mary and I have just spent a remarkable week on the island refuge of the Kennedys, Clintons, and mobs of old-money types. First visit for both of us, and we didn't know what to expect. I was brought out to do my Marley show by a reggae fan named Peter White, who relocates antique barns throughout New England. The program was held in West Tisbury's Ag Hall, a barn built on the mainland in 1854 and then carried board by board to the Vineyard a couple of years ago, and reassembled Amish-barn- raising style, by local volunteers.

The barn was rammed on Thursday evening the 17th, with over 400 people in attendance, including the Governor's daughter. Peter Simon, well-known to reggae followers worldwide, was the evening's guest DJ. Also in attendance was Stephen Davis, Simon's co-author on the classic books Reggae Bloodlines and Reggae International. The former has been revised and reprinted recently, but the International volume, sold out for years, has never been reissued. I raised the matter with them both, and Davis revealed that he's been thinking of updating the book, using some of its original material and adding a great deal about what's been happening in our world in the past 14 years. "We were basically unhappy with the scattershot format and layout of the book, imposed on us by the publisher in Germany. I'd like it to be more coherent. We'd call it Jamaican Music."

By the way, Stephen Davis' highly acclaimed biography of Bob Marley, entitled (rather obviously) Bob Marley is still in print from Schenkman Books. Rolling Stone says that it is "easily the best book about Bob Marley," and the N.Y. Times adds that "this book will sercve as a lasting record of the achievements of the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley." Unlike the other, perhaps more widely know bio, Davis' meticulous research includes great detail of the artist's final four years of touring, a critical era in Bob's life that is given scant attention in the more widely circulated book. "Bob Marley" can be ordered directly from the publisher, Shenkman Books. Phone 802-767-3702 or e-mail: schenkma@sover.net. Davis, ever the busy writer, has just completed several years' of work on the newly released Aerosmith autobiography, and has been doing research in his beloved Morocco for a follow-up to his haunting semi-fiction, Jajouka Rolling Stone, about the ancient Pipers of Pan in the Rif Mountains of North Africa. If you're at all interested in world music, this is an essential read.

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