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Album Review by: Tom Orr

Taj Weekes and Adowa - Deidem (Jatta Records, 2008)

Back for a second go-around following his 2005 debut disc Hope & Doubt is St. Lucia-born Taj Weekes and his band Adowa. Deidem
sports the same strengths as Weekes’ initial offering: Great songs,
crisp reggae arrangements and the melancholy-tinged sweetness of
Weekes’ high, reedy, almost feminine-sounding voice.

The title of his latest translates as “All Of Us,” and he’s clearly
singing with a universal heart on such tracks as the violence-deploring
“Since Cain,” the love lament of “Hollow Display” and plaintive
commentaries on Darfur and Hurricane Katrina via “Orphans Cry” and
“Louisiana” respectively. An impassioned communicator who uses
no-nonsense reggae music as his means, Weekes is precisely what the
world needs more of in these troubled times.