‘Old Soul’ Stephen Marley announces release of new album, tour

Stephen Marley has announced a brand-new album. The Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer will release Old Soul digitally on September 15.

The album boasts an array of special guests, including Eric Clapton, Bob Weir, Jack Johnson, brothers Ziggy Marley and Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, Buju Banton and Slightly Stoopid.

Old Soul is Stephen Marley’s fifth solo album and his first full-length project since 2016. It was created during the COVID-19 lockdown. In a release, Stephen Marley said that he set up a new studio on a remote family farm in the Florida countryside, and held nightly jam sessions in a converted garage. With a stripped-down ensemble comprising binghi drums, bass, acoustic guitar, and flute, he played whatever he felt like, ranging from original compositions and reggae rarities with deep personal meaning to classics recorded by Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and The Beatles. He described the sounds made on the farm as “irie vibration”. The lion’s share of Old Soul was recorded during these “unplugged” jam sessions.

“You have to be true to yourself,” he said of the production, “I refuse to be put into any category. I am inspired by everything. So if I feel like I want to play some jazz music, I will go play some jazz music. Who dig it, dig it.”

He reflected on his life as a youngster growing up as the second-eldest son in the Marley family. “April 1972, my mom and poppa brought me through ... back then I was the favourite, so they say,” said Stephen Marley, who marked his 51st year on Earth by sharing glimpses of his past and releasing the title track of the album earlier this year. “I’m an old soul, living in the body of a nine-year-old/Guess I’ve been here before,” read the song’s lyrics.

With Old Soul including a number of hand-selected special guests, Stephen Marley and his older brother, Ziggy, collaborate on There’s A Reward, a heartfelt tribute to Joe Higgs, the man who mentored young Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer when they were all-aspiring singers in Trench Town. Meanwhile, Stephen Marley’s younger brother, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, features on Cast The First Stone, a tune said to have “an ominous groove”.

He enlists his old friend Buju Banton on the ska-flavoured Thanks We Get (Do Fi Dem), a Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry composition made famous by Junior Byles that explores the idea that no good deed goes unpunished. And Kyle McDonald of Slightly Stoopid joins on a verse on Standing In Love, a ballad that hearkens back to reggae’s sweet rocksteady era.

DIFFERENT SOUNDS

Eric Clapton laces up tasty lead guitar riffs over a powerful acoustified version of Bob Marley’s I Shot The Sheriff, and the album closes with Grateful Dead legend guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir and surfer, singer and songwriter Jack Johnson, who joins Stephen on the album’s final track, Winding Roads, recorded at Bob Weir’s TRI Studios with his Wolf Bros band including Don Was and Dead & Company members Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane, the only song on Old Soul recorded with a full band.

“We definitely did want some different sounds,” said Stephen Marley, “We never want to come with the same ray, ray, ray. We try to make some of them something you can’t really identify. Ah just music.” Among the more unexpected selections embedded on Old Soul are the cover of Sinatra’s These Foolish Things (Reminds Me Of You), as well as Marley’s take on The Beatles’ perpetually pleading Don’t Let Me Down.

In celebration of the new album, Stephen Marley will embark upon his Old Soul Tour Unplugged 2023 from September 8 to October 22, with special guest reggae singer-songwriter Mike Love to open on select shows.