On May 5, 2017 , noted activist, author, documentary filmmaker and theologian Rev. Osagyefo Sekou released his debut solo album. In Times Like These, To record this record went back to his Southern home searching for his family’s musical roots in the deep Arkansas blues and gospel traditions. Produced by six-time Grammy nominated Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, featuring Luther’s brother Cody Dickinson, and supported by Thirty Tigers, Rev. Sekou’s debut solo album is a new vision for what Southern blues can mean today. In Times Like These is drenched with the sweat and tears of the Mississippi River, the great tributary that ties so much of the South together. The album’s sonic landscape captures the toil of Southern field hands, the guttural cry of chain gangs, the vibrancy of contemporary street protest, backwoods juke joints, and shotgun churches—all saturated with Pentecostal sacred steel and soul legacy.
Rev. Sekou’s blues lineage runs deep. His biological grandfather played piano on the Chitlin circuit with Louis Jordan, B.B. King, and Albert King. Rev. Sekou, a third generation ordained minister in the Church of God in Christ was raised in part by Rev. James Thomas, also a minister. Three generations of musicians play on In Times Like These—each with their own intergenerational connections to the music. Luther Dickinson, and his brother Cody Dickinson, form the critically acclaimed North Mississippi Allstars. They are the sons of the late Jim Dickinson who recorded with Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, and Bob Dylan and founded Zebra Ranch Studios, where the album was recorded. The album also includes legendary Hammond B3 player, Rev. Charles Hodges, known for his collaborations with Al Green as part of the famed Hi Records/Stax Rhythm Section. The sanctified blues of Rev. Sekou is an intense blend of late North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, 1960s Rock and Roll, Memphis Soul, Chuck Berry St Louis vibes, and Pentecostal steel guitar.
On Jan. 31st, 2016, Rev. Sekou & the Holy Ghost released their debut album, “The Revolution Has Come”--released by St. Louis based record label, FarFetched in collaboration with The Fellowship of Reconciliation and Eloveate Music. "The Revolution Has Come" is the highest grossing and fastest selling album FarFetched has ever released.
Recorded in Saint Louis in mid-November, over 30 musicians, engineers, and vocalists from around the country brought this project into being. The 9-track project celebrates the gutbucket blues, gospel, soul, and funk at once. The album is organized as a suite for Ferguson--divided into three movements: Resistance, Remembrance, and Revolution. AFROPUNK celebrates the album’s ”deep bone-marrow-level conviction”. The single, “We Comin'"was named the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Harmonic, rock guitar, and a B3 Hammond organ carry the listener to protest ecstasy.
REV. SEKOU + THE SEALS BREAKER || LIVE AT PASTE STUDIOS
[I BELIEVE]
