Simone G. and Reggae Rock
New York, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2017 | SELF
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MILFORD, Pa. - Arriving via a twisty route from Jamaica, Simone G. and Reggae Rock will bring new reggae and a few classics to the Frisky Goat Coffeehouse from 7-9 p.m. Saturday night.
Lead singer and songwriter Simone Gordon sang backup for Steve Marley, Bob Marley’s son, for five years, touring the world, but she wanted a chance to “be in front.”
“I wanted to do something from my own production camp,” said Gordon.
Her life began in Jamaica, and when her family arrived in Miami in search of opportunity when she was 4, Jamaican culture came with them. She recalls eating ackee and salt fish for breakfast, jerk chicken, rice, peas, and coconut milk for dinner. Her father was an engineer, and her mother, who was a banker in Jamaica, got degrees in business, nursing and law, while Gordon went to the high school for performing arts in Miami to study acting.
“My parents grew up poor and wanted something better for themselves, and so do I,” said Gordon. But initially singing seemed out of reach. “Deep down I wanted to sing, but I was too shy to sing solo.”
So she sang in the church choir until musical theater lessons gave her enough confidence to sing professionally.
“It was amazing working with the Marley family,” Gordon said. “They’re all on-stage musicians or music business entrepreneurs. And singing onstage in front of tens of thousands of people, you feel that energy of people singing the same songs. But I feel it in small, intimate crowds too.”
When she was not singing with Marley, she sang solo with Junior Marvin, who had been Bob Marley’s last lead guitarist, Gordon said. Earth Maxwell, Marvin’s keyboardist, became her producer and business partner. She writes song lyrics. He does the instrumentation. They have played at various New York venues, including Central Park Summer Stage, B.B. King’s, and Brooklyn Bowl. Gordon lives in Manhattan, but Maxwell has a house in Dingmans Ferry, Pa. So last summer they played for a Port Jervis bike race and Milford Music Festival.in a four-piece band with a changing lineup.
On Saturday night, however, Maxwell will provide drums, bass, and guitar on his keyboards while Gordon sings her own songs and some classic reggae. - The Times Herald Record
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Singer Simone Gordon (Simone G) and Keyboardist/Producer Earth Maxwell are founding members of a lively all-star ensemble called "Reggae Rock".Simone G is also backing vocalist for The Legendary Wailers with Julian Junior Marvin (Bob Marley's lead guitarist). For most shows, Reggae Rock is a full 5-piece band of top notch musicians who record and tour with artists across many different genres. Reggae Rock performs in most local areas as a scaled down but still rockin’ duo. In this capacity, Earth's full responsibility is recreating all of the musical components and instrumentation, which allows the group to bring a dynamic, full-band sound with its unique style in a compact package. Simone has worked with many world renowned Reggae artists, including the Marley family; Stephen Marley; Al Anderson of The Wailers; Causion; Third World; Bushman; Laury Webb; The Meditations; Marcia Griffiths; Glen Washington; Ed Robinson; The CCB All-stars; Marcia Davis and Outro; Talking Dreads and many more. Her vocals can be heard on a multitude of recordings, including Burning Spear’s Grammy nominated album “Our Music”.Earth is currently with The Legendary Wailers, but is known for producing the “Living In The Positive” album for Nasio Fontaine, which garnered the artist a major label deal at that time. He is also an accomplished illustrator. After interning at Marvel Comics, Earth went on to work for Archie Comics illustrating the highly popular “Sonic The Hedgehog” series.
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