Our Pick: Kalan Wi — Celebrate

Artist—Kalan Wi
Song—True Love ( The Berry Picking Song)
Album—Country Groove
Year—2011

Most music can fit into a descriptive music category. I’m sure you’ve seen in record lists, music that has been labeled International. I can’t say I understand what that category is suggesting as a musical description but I can tell you that the music of Kalan Wi truly represents what I would say is a world beat of music. The hybrid sounds Kalan Wi delivers on this album will instantly be recognizable as the Caribbean sounds of reggae but that rhythm only underlies the beautiful harmonizing of vocalists singing bi-lingually in English and the west coast Lil’wat language.

The vocal harmonizing is a marriage of perfectly complimenting tones as inseparable as Simon & Garfunkel, McCartney & Lennon. Though Kalan Wi clearly bounce to the laid back rhythms of reggae, the natural heartbeat of the Indigenous drum is not lost in this music. Kalan Wi are not confined to the Caribbean rhythms either and on the title track “Celebrate”, they are willing to break out into old time rock and roll complete with rock and roll guitar riffs. As the song “Lil’wat7up” starts, you’ll think you stumbled into an African dance party while the “Grandmother Song” will treat you with a little country. There are enough English lyrics to keep your attention while you can swoon to the beautiful sound and flow of the Lil’wat language. Sometimes Kalan Wi reminds you of Jerry Alfred & The Medicine Beat and sometimes you wonder if Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff hadn’t colonized the Lil’wat Nation before the Europeans. Kalan Wi can easily be your 2012 summer soundtrack.

Celebrate is an apt title for this collection of songs about Lil’wat Nation culture and lifestyles, using world beat rhythms as its musical anchor. It is truly a celebration of melody and song that transcends the influence of the Lil’wat Nation that should easily be embraced by all music lovers globally.