Demi Lovato - Disney's latest teen princess backs up her style with plenty of substance

In the 60s, Motown Records used the slogan “The Sound of Young America” to tout its roster of fresh musical talent as well as the demographic of its target audience. Today that title would most accurately belong to Disney’s Hollywood Records label, which has become the prime launch pad for teenage musical talent aimed at an even younger teen market.

Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers might be the best known artists on Hollywood’s roster, but singer, songwriter, and actress Demi Lovato, who will appear August 21 at the Hershey Park Star Pavilion in Hershey, Pa. and August 22 at the Trump Taj Mahal’s Etess Arena in Atlantic City, is rapidly establishing herself as a legitimate pop star.

Like other young stars in the Disney family, Lovato, who turns 17-years-old August 20, stars in her own Disney Channel sitcom, Sonny With a Chance. But unlike some of her peers, Lovato has always made it clear that music, not acting, is her “first passion.”

Born Demetria Devonne Lovato in Dallas, Texas, Lovato began her acting career at age six on the children's television series Barney and Friends. There she met Selena Gomez, her Disney Channel co-star with whom she remains best friends. Lovato appeared on several television shows and series before landing the role of Mitchie Torres in 2008’s Camp Rock opposite the Jonas Brothers.

For her 2008 debut album Don't Forget Lovato co-wrote several songs with the three Jonas Brothers. The result was rock-edged pop closer in style to Avril Lavigne than Miley Cyrus. Critics took note of the fact that Lovato co-wrote her own material, and her live performances confirmed that her sturdy voice was no studio creation. On stage, Lovato focused more on playing guitar and piano than her dance moves.

On her current CD, Here We Go Again, Lovato takes another step forward. Her singing voice has matured nicely, developing a gritty lower register that compliments her higher range. Although she has a tendency to succumb to the “breathy” delivery that seems fashionable among young female singers, Lovato’s phrasing is leagues ahead of that of most of her peers.

In “World of Chances” she sings “You’ve got a face for a smile, you know / A shame you waste it when you’re breaking me slowly / But I’ve got a world of chances for you…/ Chances that you’re burning through” and the heartbreak is palpable.

“I wanted to make an album that parents would enjoy listening to while their kids are playing it in the car with them,” Lovato said in a recent telephone interview. “It's nice because now people get to see what I'm all about. This album is more me and hopefully they like it.”

Here's Lovato in the music video for "Here We Go Again":

Here We Go Again features plenty of high-energy pop-rock tunes (notably the title track, “Solo,” and “Everything You’re Not”) for Lovato’s younger fans to bounce along with, but the most pleasant surprises on the album are the songs on which Lovato stretches out stylistically.

On “Every Time You Lie” she shows off her sassy side on a sultry, R&B-flavored kiss-off to an ex-boyfriend, then charms with her sweet, romantic side on “Falling Over Me.” On “Got Dynamite” Lovato channels her idol Kelly Clarkson with an edgy rocker that would fit comfortably on Clarkson’s latest album.

The aforementioned “World of Chances” is a mid-tempo ballad Lovato wrote with John Mayer that could be embraced by both Top-40 and Adult Contemporary radio. Lovato says collaborating with Mayer was “a dream come true.”

“One of the best parts about being in this industry is getting to meet and work with the people who have inspired you,” she says. “I was intimidated at first, but he’s such a down-to-earth guy that when we started writing I forgot who he was and just appreciated his music. He made it really comfortable.”

One of Lovato’s favorite songs on the album is “Stop The World,” which she co-wrote with Nick Jonas. “I put a lot of personal things into it,” she says. “The song is basically about like falling in love with someone you shouldn't fall in love with, which is what I tend to do.”

Another personal song is “Catch Me,” a pretty acoustic ballad with a string section, reminiscent of the Plain White T’s hit “Hey There Delilah.” Lovato calls the song, about the pleasures of falling in love, her “baby” since she wrote it alone in her room. She says she was thrilled when producer John Fields told her it was good enough to make the album.

Although she always intended Here We Go Again to be more personal and reflect her maturity, Lovato seems keenly aware that her core audience might not be ready to grow up too soon.

“You can’t do that overnight,” she says. “You don’t just wake up one day and say, ‘I don’t want to be teen star anymore. I want to be respected as an adult.’ I think it’s something that you start working on at an early age.

“Since I do want to have a long-lasting career, I want my fans to grow with me,” she adds. “So with the projects that I take on and the roles that I take, I ask myself if they are appropriate for younger audiences – ‘Is this something that is a little more mature, but not so much that it will scare my fans away?’”

With that in mind, a few songs written for Here We Go Again were left on the shelf, including one about her relationship with her estranged biological father entitled “For the Love of a Daughter,” which Lovato wrote with William Beckett from the emo-band The Academy Is.

“When I’m a little older, maybe my fans will be ready,” Lovato says. “But this album really expresses my writing and outlook right now.”

Lovato’s Hershey and Atlantic City shows are two of the final stops on her summer tour. She’s set to film Camp Rock 2 in September, followed by another season of Sonny With A Chance, and her third album after that. It’s a busy schedule, even for an energetic 17-year-old who hopes to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music one day.

“I wish I had more time off or more time at home,” Lovato admits, “but you’ve got to work hard to get to where you want to be.”

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City to City: Suzanne Vega Makes Her Atlantic City Debut

It’s poetically appropriate that Suzanne Vega will make her Atlantic City debut as part of a tour supporting Beauty & Crime, her brilliant new album in which New York City plays a starring role. While the specifics are different, the paradox of a city in which, as Vega sings, “You were dazzled by her beauty and her crime” could refer to either town. The themes of change, rebirth, and even some of the characters (“Frank and Ava”) that Vega writes about on the album are common to both New York and Atlantic City.

However, once you get past the broad generalities, it's clear that the town that permeates the songs of Beauty & Crime is Manhattan. Vega, who performs Saturday, December 1 in the Club Harlem Ballroom at the House of Blues, has always been known for her succinct narrative songwriting style. Throughout Beauty & Crime a variety of New York City locations (West End Avenue, Ludlow Street, Ground Zero) serve as backdrops to her songs.

In a recent telephone interview for Atlantic City Weekly, Vega joked that she could offer a bus tour of all the locations mentioned on Beauty & Crime. She says the song “New York Is A Woman” was inspired by conversations she’s had with first-time visitors to the Big Apple.

“I have a lot of conversations with first-time visitors and sometimes I'm even there with them when they're in New York for the first time,” she said. “The guys from DNA (the British producers who worked with Vega on the hit remix of “Tom's Diner”) came to New York to do some work with me on some other projects. They had never been to New York, and they were flipping out. It was a lot of fun to watch their reactions. Everyone's always impressed by the steam that comes out of the sidewalks, and everyone seems to say the same thing – that it's just like what they've seen in the movies and on television.”

Vega was born in Santa Monica, California, but her family moved to New York City when she was two and a half. She started writing poems when she was nine, and wrote her first song when she was 14. She taught herself to play the guitar, and studied dance at New York's High School of Performing Arts.

While majoring in English literature at Barnard College, she started performing in clubs and coffehouses on New York’s Lower East Side. In 1984 she was signed to A&M Records, and released her self-titled debut album a year later. Featuring the modest hit, “Marlene On The Wall,” it was warmly received by both critics and fans.

Vega hit her stride when her 1987 sophomore effort, Solitude Standing, garnered critical and commercial success worldwide. The album featured two unlikely hit singles – the a capella version of "Tom's Diner," (which was an even bigger hit again in 1990 in DNA’s club remix version) and "Luka,” a disarmingly catchy, uptempo song about, and written from the point of view of a battered child. The song raised awareness of a social issue in a way that hadn’t been done in pop music since the 60s. “Luka” became an international hit, and it’s video an MTV staple.

Released last July, Beauty & Crime is Vega’s seventh album overall, and her first since 2001’s Songs In Red and Gray. Six years is a long time between albums, but the 48-year-old Vega kept herself busy in the interim.

In addition to touring, Vega hosted the public radio series “American Mavericks,” wrote an occasional piece for the New York Times, and participated in “The Vigil Project,” a collection inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. She changed managers and record labels; and went from adjusting to single life (she was divorced from producer Mitchell Froom in 1998) to re-adjusting to married life (she married lawyer and poet Paul Mills in 2006).

When it came time to record Beauty & Crime, Vega says she had a very specific idea of how she wanted the album to sound.

“I try to make each record exciting and a step in a new direction,” she says. “I didn’t want to do just a regular old folk album [with] guitar and your basic four-piece backup band. I couldn't help but think that strings would be really gorgeous on some of the songs, like ‘Pornographer’s Dream,’ which just seemed made for that kind of lush sound.”

British producer Jimmy Hogarth helped Vega balance traditional and modern elements during the recording process.

“The album was recorded using analog equipment, and then fed digitally so that we could have the technology of cutting and pasting, but maintain the warm sound of the analog recording,” Vega says.

Many of the songs on Beauty & Crime are based on Vega’s real-life experiences: “Bound” is a love song for her husband; “As You Are Now” is a dedication to her daughter; “Zephyr & I” revisits old haunts with an old friend; and “Ludlow Street” mourns the loss of her brother. Vega says that knowing the back-story of a song can enhance a listener’s appreciation of it, but she believes her best work can also stand on its own.

“In a song like ‘Angel’s Doorway,’ I don't think you have to know that it's my cousin, but it helps to know that it's about a cop,” she says. “A song like ‘Luka’ works regardless of whether you know it's about child abuse or not. It was a hit before people knew what it was about, and then people started talking about what it was about. So the best songs will work no matter. You shouldn't have to have the Cliffs Notes on it to know what's going on. But to get the full benefit of the song, sometimes it really does help.”

Vega says that over the years she’s become a more deliberate songwriter. When writing for an album, she considers how a song will translate to live performance.

“I record once every few years, but I'm constantly touring and constantly performing,” Vega says. “It's much more useful to me if the song works live, because if I can make it work live, I know I can make it work in the studio. If I can only make it work in the studio, then it's less useful to me. I also like a show to be entertaining, and so I try to make sure there's enough up-tempo, major key songs, because I tend to write minor key songs. If I'm singing too many sad songs in A-minor, I'll say, ‘Lets see if I can write a song in A-major. Or let's see if I can do a whole song with just major chords.’ I like to have a balance.”

Fans who come to the House of Blues on Saturday can expect a well-balanced show of both old and new material.

“I do want to play a lot of the new album because I don't know how else people are hearing it,” Vega says. “It's not something that Top-40 radio is going to jump all over, so I really want to make sure that the audience does get a chance to hear it. But I'm also playing quite a bit of older material – ‘Luka,’ ‘Tom's Diner,’ ‘The Queen and the Soldier,’ ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Caramel,’ ‘Marlene on the Wall”… so it's a really nice range of songs.”

Linda Eder - Back to the Beach

There was a time when singer and Broadway star Linda Eder could stroll down Atlantic City's Boardwalk on a crowded summer evening and go unnoticed. In fact, it happened on a fairly regular basis in the mid 1980s. Back then, Eder was a recent transplant from Minneapolis, building a reputation and fan base performing her show four times a night, six nights a week at Harrah's.

In the years since, Eder's celebrity profile has risen considerably. In 1987, she tried out for the television talent show Star Search, and won a spot on the first episode of that show's 1988 season. She proved unbeatable for an unprecedented 12-week run. The Star Search appearances led to a record contract and her big break; she was cast as Lucy in a new musical version of Jekyll & Hyde.

The show debuted in 1990 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. In April 1997, Jekyll & Hyde made its way to Broadway. That year, Eder was nominated and won a Theater World Award for her performance as Lucy. Since then, she's appeared on stage in Beauty and the Beast, The Civil War and Camille Claudel, and has released eight solo albums, including her most recent, 2005's By Myself: The Songs of Judy Garland.

Eder has performed in Atlantic City numerous times since her lounge act days. While she considers herself a mid-level celebrity at best, her days of going unnoticed in a crowd have passed. In February 2006, she returned to perform two shows with singer and pianist Michael Feinstein at the Atlantic City Hilton.

"It's a new show — an idea that we've wanted to do for a while," Eder said at the time in an interview for Atlantic City Weekly. "We put it together last year and did five shows to try it out. It was so much fun, and the response was fantastic, so we've got a lot more booked."

Eder and Feinstein are on stage together for the entire show, with the exception of two short solo segments where each performs two or three songs apiece. The duo is accompanied by Eder's seven-piece touring band, under the direction of John Oddo.

Touted as an evening of "masterpieces from the American songbook," the show includes songs by legends like Irving Berlin and Duke Ellington, as well as more contemporary artists.

"It's everything from Steve and Eydie, to Sonny and Cher, to Joni Mitchell, to more current material," Eder says. "My definition of a standard is anything that is written well enough so that it stays around as the years go on. New standards are being created all the time."
Eder says she enjoys the variety afforded by successful careers as both a stage performer and recording artist. At this point in her life, however, family considerations have kept her from committing to another Broadway show.

"I want to do it again, but I'm not in a big rush," she says. "It's a wonderful experience and great fun, but it's also the most work. I know the hours that it involves. I have a six-and-a-half year-old son who's now in school, and I know that if I were in a show on Broadway, I really wouldn't see him that much. So I'm very tempered by that.

"There is a piece in the works being especially written for me that I really like, so we'll see…. We're progressing with that, but it would be at least two years before it would be ready to come to New York."

Macy Gray's "Big" Return

Before Macy Gray released her current album, Big, earlier this year, more than a few music industry insiders had closed the book on her music career. The singer, best known for the Grammy Award winning hit “I Try,” had not released an album since 2003’s commercially disappointing The Trouble With Being Myself, and had since parted ways with her record company.

Four years between albums is a lifetime in the music business. But Gray, who performed at Atlantic City's Borgata Music Box along with opening act the Brand New Heavies in September, says she always knew she would rebound.

“I was definitely confident [that I would wind up on another major label],” Gray said in a telephone interview in advance of the Borgata show. “I thought about my next album a lot. [The break between albums] gave me time to figure out what I was going to do next, and how I was going to do it.”

While the time away from music allowed her to further pursue her acting career (she’s appeared in such films as Training Day, Domino, Shadowboxer, and Idlewild), and start her own clothing lines (the high-end Natalie Hinds Collection for women, SNAC for men’s fashion, and HUMPS, for “voluptuous women”) she eventually signed with will.i.am Records, headed by and named for Black Eyed Peas leader and in-demand producer William James Adams Jr.

Soon after, Gray recorded Big with an elite group of producers and guest artists, including will.i.am, Ron Fair, Justin Timberlake, Fergie, and Natalie Cole. Released in March 2007, and featuring the singles “Finally Made Me Happy,” “Shoo Be Doo,” and “What I Gotta Do,” Big has become Gray’s most critically acclaimed and most commercially successful album since her 1999 debut, On How Life Is.

Born Natalie Renee McIntyre in Canton, Ohio, Gray studied piano at an early age, but never envisioned herself as a performer, much less a singer. She moved to Los Angeles to attend USC’s film school in the hope of becoming a screenwriter. While there, she became friends with a group of musicians who convinced her to try her hand at songwriting, and eventually, singing.
“I was shy about doing music because kids used to make fun of my voice when I was younger,” Gray said in a 1996 interview for the All Music Guide.

“Squeaky,” “raspy,” “scratchy,” and about a dozen similar adjectives — none of which begin to do it justice — have been used to describe Gray’s distinctive, soulful voice. Gray has heard them all, and recently added her own description to the mix.

“You know what? I think my voice is better now than it has ever been,” she said in an interview for You Magazine. “It sounds like raspberries — like ripe raspberries — and I like raspberries a lot.”

Gray says the songs on Big came together in a variety of ways.

“Every song is different,” she says. “On some songs I had an idea and I would sing it to my piano player. I always come up with a hook line and a melody first, then put it together. With people like Will and Justin, they build the track first, and then they come up with the hook. Everybody does it a different way.”

Lyrically, the album covers familiar territory.

“It’s always ... talking about life and love and all the things that everybody goes through,” Gray says.

While Big boasts its share of old-school instrumentation and lush production, executive producers will.i.am and Ron Fair manage to add a modern edge to the proceedings while maintaining Gray’s distinctive, somewhat retro sound.

“Musically, there are a lot of beats. At the same time, there’s a lot of production on it, a lot of strings, horns, keyboards. So it’s a really built album,” Gray says. “It varies from one song to another. I wanted it to be different from everything else that’s out there. So we took our chances.”

The approach seems to have worked. Besides overwhelmingly positive press, Big has already attracted a more diverse audience than Gray’s previous albums.

“Up until now my audience was mostly white females,” Gray says. “On my first couple of albums I didn’t really have a black audience. I wasn’t embraced by black radio at all. But for this album [my audience has been] very mixed — I get a lot of black people, a lot of guys, even a couple of kids.”

Fans at Gray’s Borgata show witnessed a performance that appealed to the eyes as well as the ears. Gray and her eight-piece band performed nearly all of Big, as well as over a half-dozen songs from her first three albums in a highly polished, 75-minute set.

“Besides the music, there are a lot of visual dynamics going on. The set list has a storyline,” Gray says. “We crafted every minute of our show. We don’t have revolving stages and a bunch of dancers. It’s just me and my band, but I think it’s just as much a show as anybody else’s. It’s pretty hot. You have to see it.”

Christina Aguilera Gets Back To Basics in Atlantic City

The show that Grammy award-winning pop diva Christina Aguilera brought to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Saturday, March 31 might have been part of her Back to Basics Tour, but like the 2006 double-album it’s named after, there was nothing “basic” about it. The ninety-minute, hi-tech spectacle featured 15 costume changes, a supporting cast of 20 dancers and musicians, over 600 lights, and an array of Cirque du Soleil-inspired acrobatics and special effects.

In a recent teleconference interview to promote the tour, Aguilera said that she feels presenting anything less would be shortchanging her audience.

"Nowadays, I don't think it would be fair to my audience to just kind of sit on the stage with a mike,” Aguilera said. “If I play an arena, I want my audience to be able to look around and enjoy a show from all aspects. I think it's only fair to my audience to fill up the space and to give them a real show.”

Aguilera’s luck crapped out the last time she was scheduled to perform at Boardwalk Hall. In August 2003, the Justified & Stripped Tour, featuring Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, was derailed in Atlantic City when a lighting grid collapsed prior to the show. No one was hurt, but the accident caused over $1 million in damage to the show’s lighting, sound and video equipment, and forced the cancellation of several dates on the tour.

Much of the current show’s staging is inspired by the vintage jazz, big band, soul and blues themes the 26-year-old singer explores on the critically acclaimed Back to Basics album. Artistically, it’s Aguilera’s most impressive album yet – eons beyond the corporate pop of her self-titled debut, and even more ambitious than 2002’s Stripped.

“I always just do what I feel,” Aguilera says. “With my first album, I kind of had to play by the rules and go accordingly to what my label wanted me to do. A few million records sold later, I was able to do what I wanted with Stripped, which was kind of my own interpretation of my coming-of-age record. It was the first time that I felt that I could really be myself, write my own material, and express myself as the woman that I'd grown into at that point.

“While I was on tour with Stripped, I started diving deeper into this place of inspiration. Blues, soul, and jazz music were always an inspiration for me, and I really felt that it was time to dive into that world, getting to know it better.”

Aguilera has always had an affinity for jazz and blues standards. A native of Staten Island, she began performing in local talent shows while growing up in suburban Pittsburgh. At 9-years-old, she appeared on Star Search singing Etta James’ “A Sunday Kind of Love,” but lost the competition.

“There's a lot of sadness in old music and in blues. It originates from pain and I think that's really beautiful,” Aguilera says. “I talk openly about my past and what I've gone through – abuse being something that was very real in my household, and a lot of chaos growing up as a child. I think that I naturally just gravitated towards music that I could really feel on a deep level – and that meant sadness. I was able to connect with that at a really young age.”

In 1992 she joined the cast of the Disney Channel’s The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and JC Chasez. In 1998 Aguilera recorded the song “Reflection” for Disney's animated film “Mulan.” It led to a record deal with RCA and the release of her self-titled debut album in 1999. The album hit #1 on the strength of the single, “Genie In A Bottle” and its follow-up, “What A Girl Wants.”

With remarkable ease, Aguilera’s public persona has evolved from a Britney pop clone, to a “Dirrty” party girl, to a retro-chic diva. Like Bette Midler in the ’70s, and Madonna in the ’80s and ’90s, Aguilera admits she enjoys reinventing herself on every album.

“I do get bored easily and not only is it important for me to challenge myself and evolve as an artist, but it's important for me personally,” she says. “I think that life is all about changing and trying to continue your growth as a person. I'm not the same person that I was on Stripped, and I wasn't the same person on Stripped that I was when I first came out. To me, it's just a constant evolution.”

As part of that growth process, Aguilera says that she would like to branch out into acting.

“Movies and film is something that I do intend on doing,” she says. “Like music, it's another art form and I want to take it seriously. So I've been reading scripts, but I really want to make sure it’s the right role. If I want to act, I want to do just that. I don't want to play myself as a singer.”
Music will remain her first love, however. Aguilera says she already has ideas for the direction her next album will take.

“I can't give away what [it is] because there always has to be that element of surprise,” she says. “But I am extremely driven and it'll always be inside of me to keep that focus on the next thing. It's not really about knowing exactly where the next album will be five years from now, 10 years from now, or the third or fifth album from now, but it's more about just keeping my focus and keeping the ultimate game plan of bettering myself and constantly evolving and changing and seeing what the next ‘me’ has to offer.”

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Steel Pulse Shares Positive Vibrations

The British roots reggae band Steel Pulse may have been named after a popular racehorse, but the group has modeled its career after a marathon runner. Now into its thirty-second year, Steel Pulse remains one of the most popular and critically acclaimed reggae bands in the world. Even David Hinds, the group’s founder, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, marvels at his band’s longevity.

“A lot of the people that attend a Steel Pulse concert these days are half my age,” he said in a March 2007 interview for Atlantic City Weekly. “The songs that they’re groovin’ on were written before they were even an itch in their dad’s pants.”

Local fans will have a chance to groove to the rhythms of Steel Pulse this Saturday, March 10, at 9 p.m., when the band performs in Trump Marina’s Grand Cayman room. Tickets are $28.30.

The Atlantic City date is the last stop on a five-week U.S. tour that saw the band spending nearly all of February here in the States. The timing that brought Steel Pulse to the U.S. during Black History Month may have been coincidental, but it was very appropriate for a group known for its socially conscious lyrics and its involvement in social justice issues.

With its infectious riddims, reggae’s music might sound upbeat, but its lyrics often give voice to the struggling and downtrodden. Some fans gravitate to the music of Steel Pulse because of its ties to traditional Rastafarian beliefs, or because of the political message in its lyrics. Then there are those who simply like its catchy, tropical sound. Hinds says he welcomes fans who enjoy his music no matter what their reason.

“When someone says, ‘I don’t really like reggae music, but you guys are alright.’ I really feel good about that,” he says. “There are styles of music that I wouldn’t normally go out and buy, but when I hear a particular band that I find exceptional, I usually find that they are the cream of the crop in that particular style. So it’s gratifying when someone views us in that way.”

Steel Pulse has released over a dozen albums of original material since 1975. The group has been nominated six times, and won a Grammy award for its Babylon The Bandit album. Steel Pulse became the first reggae band ever to perform at the White House when it appeared at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural celebration.

The history of Steel Pulse is also not without its bumps in the road. In the late 80’s, the group embraced the fashionable synth-pop dance sound too eagerly, and lost credibility with some of its core audience. Over the years, original members have left the band, leaving only Hinds and keyboard player Selwyn Brown from the original group.

But Hinds believes the current line-up, with includes long-time members Clifford 'Moonie' Pusey on lead guitar, Alvin Ewen on bass, Sidney Mills on keyboards, and Conrad Kelly on drums, is the best ever.

The band’s most recent album, 2004’s African Holocaust, was hailed by fans and critics alike as a return to the unabashed political and social commentary of classic Steel Pulse albums like True Democracy and Babylon The Bandit – and as one of the strongest of the band’s career.

Hinds says the band would like to record a new album, but is tied up in tour commitments for the foreseeable future. One thing he won’t do is rush the process.

“I don’t like putting out an album for the hell of it,” he says. “I’d like to think that when I put something out it’s got quality, it’s got substance, and ultimately it has longevity.”

He feels that after over 30 years in the public eye, it becomes more difficult to create albums that meet the high expectations of fans.

“When you put out something that really makes a big impression, whatever you follow it up with usually fails by comparison,” Hinds says.

It doesn’t help that Steel Pulse’s brand of music isn’t currently fashionable. Today, reggae bands that focus on social or political issues in their lyrics are a rarity.

“When we started out, we shared a vision with other bands,” he says. “There were a lot of other bands saying the same things we were saying. It was almost like an art movement – where one artist draws on another’s ideas, and one supports the other. But when you find that you’re venturing into areas that no one else is venturing into, it becomes difficult to sustain. You realize there’s no one else that’s doing what you’re doing.”

“For example, we did a song on African Holocaust called ‘Global Warning,’ which is about trees being cut down, and the environment – it’s really about the global warming issue that Al Gore is at the helm of right now. We were singing about that over three years ago. No other reggae band is going to pick up a subject like that.”

Fashionable or not, Steel Pulse’s commitment to social issues transcends its music. Later this month the band will travel to Ghana to participate in observances marking 50 years since that country gained independence from European colonialism. The trip is also the first step in the band’s support of United Front For Africa (UFFA), a charitable organization that hopes to raise money to purchase everything from mosquito nets to computers for children in Africa.

Hines is looking forward to Saturday’s show at Trump Marina. He says the last show of a tour is always special, plus he’s likely to have a few family friends in attendance.

“My mother and father lived in Atlantic City for the good part of 10 years,” he says. “They lived there until 1994. To this day my mom calls now and again and says ‘I understand you’re playing Atlantic City. Could you call so-and-so, who’s an old friend of mine, and make sure her daughter gets into the show?’

“I’ve got relatives everywhere it seems. Everyone claims to be David Hinds’ cousin… and I don’t know them from a can of paint.”