9/11 slows down 'Half-Way Tree'

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley's 2005 Welcome to Jamrock has been so successful that, to some extent, it has eclipsed the success of his 2001 album Half-Way Tree.

That album, which had Marley narrating to position himself at the mid-point of Jamaican society, not only sold gold (over 500,000 copies) worldwide, but also earned him a Grammy award in the reggae category. Among the more popular songs was It Was Written, a song of confidence in spiritual life eternal ("They may kill you once, but they can't kill you twice/Did you know destruction of the flesh is not the ending to life.") performed by Marley brothers Damian and Stephen, with Capleton as the incendiary deejay.

Other tracks on Half-Way Tree are Educated Fools, More Justice, Still Searching (for which a video had been shot just before the 9/11 attacks), She Needs My Love, and Catch a Fire.

However, at the very beginning of its public life, there was an event which led to a reshaping of perspectives worldwide which threatened to eclipse Half-Way Tree. And it was an event in which a lot of flesh was destroyed.

Cristy Barber, then vice-president of Tuff Gong and Ghetto Youths said, "It was to come out that day. It was Tuesday. It was already in the system."

The process of album release and attendant press and promotion could not be paused for a better time, not even as "the world stopped that day ... . It was heartbreaking, to build up all that momentum and then have it happen on that day". Barber described the process of doing an album project and releasing it to the public "like giving birth to a child. It was like your birthday times 10 for Damian".

Almost insignificant

However, as devastating a blow as 9/11 was to the release of Half-Way Tree, Barber describes a situation in which it was almost insignificant in the bigger picture of what was happening in New York and Washington. "It is bigger than any record release," Barber said.

"Nothing was more important than the people who were lost, the people who were saved, and the people who saved them."

It was also very personal for Barber, who said: "I am originally from Michigan, but I have lived 20 years in New York ... . This is something that happens in your backyard." And the trauma appears to have lingered, as Barber said, even now, "I have not been to Ground Zero." Neither does she immediately associate the Half-Way Tree release date with 9/11. "Something like that knocks the release date out of your head," she said.

Now, "it is not an automatic connection". Barber is reminded when people comment, "Wow! That was your release date!"

"They are just two different situations. When I think of Half-Way Tree, I think of what it did for Damian. When I think of 9/11, I feel like how everybody feels," Barber said.

Looking back at the crucial first week, Barber said: "I am pretty sure sales were affected ... . It made it a slow start, but it ended up working out fine."

Though there are those who tie the decline in reggae to 9/11, Barber links the decline of music sales in general, including reggae, with downloading from the Internet.

"September 11 has nothing to do with the decline of reggae sales, not at all," Barber said.