Soulfire

Description

Soulfire is an album by the American reggae combo Christafari, released on Gotee Records in 1994, manufactured and distributed by Myrrh, a division of Word. Also manufactured and distributed by Epic, a division of Sony Music. The album was recorded by Joe Baldridge at Fun Attic in Franklin, Tennessee; with Mark Heimermann producing. Additional engineering by Aaron Swihart, Ed Sharpe, and JB. Mixed by Baldridge at Battery in Nashville, Tennessee. Arranged by Johnny Guerrero. Digital editing by John Mark Painter of Fleming & John fame.

With the exception of the odd few fortunate enough to get imports, Britain’s reggae gospel fans missed out on these guys’ debut, which went down a storm on the other side of the pond and their follow up album proves, to me at least, that all the praise they’ve received so far is well deserved. The more rootsy tracks feature some of the loveliest harmonies I’ve heard in a long time, while the gravelly-voiced ragga toasting makes Louis Armstrong sound like Philip Bailey. The ragga tracks are very energetic, but a couple of jungle mixes would really have brought this up to date. That aside, Tanosaback, Jaibo Culture and Earth Man (known to their parents and the taxman as Mark Mohr, James Pach and Erik Sundin) have produced the most authentic, most credible attempt at reggae to come out of America (Big Mountain, eat your heart out!). Their name might cause alarm bells to ring for some people, but, judging from the lyrics here, particularly those of «Crucified», these guys are definitely on the right track, although I think they should do us all a favour and explain their choice of name. Christians are paranoid enough already. [George Luke, Cross Rhythms, February 1995]

[Jamie Lee Rake, CCM, February 1995]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/soulfire/1533126685)

CD tracklist:

01. Listening – 4:33
02. Thanks And Praise (Interlude) – 0:11
03. Selah – 5:17
04. Christafari – 5:04
05. Soulfire – 4:05
06. Inside Burning – 4:01
07. Niyabinghi (Interlude) – 0:13
08. Sitting And Watching (Fly Away) – 5:16
09. Give A Little One Love – 4:50
10. Uhuru (Interlude) – 0:15
11. Come Children – 5:30
12. Spirit Cry – 4:33
13. DJ Intro – 0:56
14. Boomerang – 3:42
15. Wha? (Interlude) – 0:10
16. Crucified – 5:01

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Gotee Records.

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