Fantastic Negrito has announced an acoustic reimagining of ‘White Jesus Black Problems’ entitled ‘Grandfather Courage‘ which will be released on February 3rd independently on streaming platforms via his own label, Storefront Records.
All three of his previous studio albums, ‘The Last Days of Oakland‘, ‘Please Don’t Be Dead‘ and ‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?‘, have won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. He has toured with artists as varied as Sturgill Simpson and Chris Cornell, collaborated with Sting and E-40, launched his own Storefront Records label, and founded the Revolution Plantation, an urban farm aimed at youth education and empowerment. He is also confirmed for several film screenings with performances and to play a show in Italy in March as a guest to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Part love story, part history lesson, the multimedia project tells the defiant tale of his seventh-generation white Scottish indentured servant grandmother Betty Gallimore who was living in a common law marriage with his seventh-generation African-American enslaved grandfather, Grandfather Courage, in the face of the racist, separatist, laws of 1750s colonial Virginia. Fantastic Negrito shares, “The incredible story of my seventh-generation grandparents was so profound. I reimagined it through the lenses of my touring band.”.
The album will be available to stream on your favourite platform, and you can pre-save via this link. Details of the physical format release are not known at this time.
UK tour dates:
02/05 – Celtic Connections, Glasgow
02/06 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
02/07 – The Lower Third, London
Of the new single, he said: “If you want to take your mind, body and soul on a trip check out the reimagined recording of Highest Bidder through the lenses of my touring band. At the time, I was listening to a lot of African drum patterns, and that definitely influenced this song. I’m trying to convey what I see when I walk down the street here in Oakland.“.
Fantastic indeed
Has a touch of Little Axe Grits & Champagne in there
playing Red Rooster this year – can’t wait