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May 15, 2009
Morgan Heritage stronger than ever
When the Morgan Heritage clan made the announcement that they would be pursuing solo careers, perhaps some wondered if it would be the end of the group.
The band comprise five of Denroy Morgan’s children have been together for more than a decade chalking up hits such as Don’t Haffi Dread, Down By The River, Best Friend and She’s Still Loving Me. Their last album Mission had the thought provoking track Nothing To Smile About.
As much as the band was making their name and creating a big impact on the scene, the members were feeling as if they needed more. Hence the decision to pursue solo careers.
"It's just that after doing seven studio albums and two live albums and touring the world for the past 10 years, doing it over and over again, after a while you become predictable and we don't want to be predictable," said Peetah Morgan, lead singer for the world-famous reggae band.
In 2006, Una announced she was taking leave to be a mother and spend time with family. Then just about a year ago, the remaining members decided to pursue a similar course of action.
Gramps has since been touring successfully with India.Arie and has performed on a few solo dates. He is also working on a solo album. Peetah has also been pursuing a solo career and working with artistes like Guyanese songbird Timeka Marshall, Busy Signal and other members of the Juke Boxx crew. Mr Mojo, who is the production boss in the Morgan Heritage set-up, has been working on his own album, and Lukes has gone into management and currently shepherds roots/reggae artiste Lutan Fyah.
But all these individual moves don't spell the demise of Morgan Heritage. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
still a family
"Morgan Heritage is a family. It's not like the group is breaking up," Peetah declared. "We, as a group, have already planned out our whole strategy on what we're trying to accomplish, what we're going do with the group in the meantime. People are going to be so overwhelmed and appreciative of what we're going to give the audience concerning Morgan Heritage, after we put out these different things."
Those different things are already beginning to bear fruit.
"With us doing this, our Morgan Heritage website and our MySpace are getting so many new hits from people who have never heard of the group," Peetah said. "Gramps did a duet with India.Arie on a new album and he has been on the road with her promoting it.
"And, all of her fans who have never heard of Morgan Heritage before are now discovering Morgan Heritage because Gramps is on the road with her. So it's even bringing a whole other fan base to the group that would not have been possible had we not done this divide-and-conquer situation."