Redbones Blues Café transformed into a reggae oasis Tuesday evening as recording artiste Nature launched his debut album Life’s Journey. Produced by DownSound Records, the album takes his fans along his journey as not only the artiste but as Andre Ellis, the man. 

“The album is a different type of album than you would expect from a reggae artiste. There are songs on [it] which give fans a mix of reggae, pop and dancehall.” These were the sentiments expressed by Nature to the teenAGE Observer. 

While the evening was off to a late start, his performance of songs from the album made up for that. The food, the décor and the ambience of the night weren’t bad either! In addition to his conscious lyrics, Nature was not hesitant to showcase a few of his dance moves. He along with a female patron seemed to be locked in a fierce battle as she was up on her feet dancing and screaming from the beginning of his performance to the end. The performance was punctuated by his recounts of his childhood. He lauded Rocky of Black Arrow Sound System.  He said Rocky is the reason there is even a Nature today, as he was the first person who gave him a mic to sing as a child. It was a sweet moment as the man he called his mentor stood up with pride to be acknowledged.

Cordell ‘Skatta’ Burrell has been another instrumental figure in his career. It was Burrell who introduced him to Joe Bogdanovich, owner of DownSound, after hearing him sing at a karaoke. He said it is never easy to convince Bogdanovich of many things but after hearing Nature sing, he was.

Bogdanovich’s common law wife and Dancehall recording artiste, Latoya ‘Toya’ Jackson passed away recently. Nature acknowledged her death by calling for a moment of silence. It was perhaps the only moment of silence for the evening as the crowd rocked to the beat of his soulful performance of songs such as Love You, Trying Man and Revolution.

Damion Crawford, tourism and entertainment junior minister, who was the key note speaker for the event, urged the entertainment industry to play an active role in the decisions making process of forming legislatures that affect it. He said the industry is a viable business that is able to transform Jamaica positively; but it is up to the players of the industry to convince the government and traditional businesses that it too is a serious business. He added that it was the entertainment industry that was able to “mek Bounty Killer stop mek figurine and Beenie Man stop lift up box”. If Nature’s album is anything to go by, there will be many success paths along his life’s journey.