Freddie McGregor Putting Finishing Touches On Last Album With Dalton Browne
Reggae artist Freddie McGregor will head back to Jamaica today after a successful show in London on Sunday. “Things pretty much open up so just getting on doing what I do, my best work,” McGregor told DancehallMag after wrapping a show with David Rodigana and The Outlook Orchestra.
Reggae stars Horace Andy and Bitty Mclean also performed at the London’s Hampstead Heath with additional music provided by Gentleman’s Dub Club, Channel One Soundsystem, Hollie Cook, and Don Letts.
“It was an outdoor event with the orchestra, it was sold out. The show had been postponed twice, once because of COVID, and last year, the stage sank, so it was great to get this one done,” he said.
In the meantime, the Big Ship singer said he is applying the finishing touches to an album that had been in the works, since before the death of Dalton Browne, a former guitarist, background vocalist and musical director for McGregor for many years.
McGregor had already laid down over 10 tracks on the album at the time of Dalton Browne’s untimely death. The well-known musician died in the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in St Andrew on November 1, 2020. The 64-year-old had been recovering from quadruple bypass surgery which he undergone the previous week.
McGregor and Browne had done all the live recordings at Mixing Lab Studio in Kingston before doing post-production work at Big Ship Studio.
The set will be his first since his 2017 project More Love In The Ghetto. The 65-year-old has more than 40 albums to his name.
McGregor, who was nominated for the Best Reggae Album at the Grammy Awards in 2002, will turn 66 this month, and he has a hectic touring schedule planned as the world opens up after the pandemic.
He will be in Carroll Park on June 25, 2022 for the Chant Down Baltimore Benefit Concert. “Then I will be back to Florida for my birthday party at the gardens on June 26th,” he said.
He also has upcoming shows such as the Boston Jerk Fest on July 2 at the Harvard University field with Chino and others. McGregor then jets off to the UK for three dates on Aug 5th, 6th 7th, in the countryside.
On Aug 12th, he will perform at the Ocean Mist in Rhode Island, and do the Jamaica Caribbean festival in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Then the Big Ship captain will pull in at the Surfside in Fairfield, Massachusetts on August 14th before blasting off to Japan in September for Mighty Crown’s Reggae Cruise.
He will close out the year by heading out to Africa for the final dates for the year ending in Nairobi, Kenya.
McGregor hails from Hayes in Clarendon. He began his music career at seven years old at the legendary Studio One with Fitzroy “Ernest” Wilson and Peter Austin, founding members of The Clarendonians. Wilson took the youngster under his wing and recorded several songs under the name Fitzy and Freddie.
He was conferred with the Order of Distinction in 2003 by the Jamaican Government for his contribution to music.