Michael Franti & Spearhead Album: “Everyone Deserves Music”

I saw Michael Franti play a free acoustic show here in Edinburgh this Sunday. We were waiting in line outside the venue at one in the afternoon. Then, boom, he just walks out the front door with his rasta hat, his bare feet, his guitar and a huge smile. He shouted out that the weather was so nice that he was moving the concert outside. We all sat down, I took my shoes off too and listened. He sang "Yes I will" right in front of me on the sidewalk, and mixed it into Bob Marley's "Sun is Shining".

This album rocks. I first heard Bomb the World (Armageddon Mix) on Thurston Moore's protest records website. Heard it again when Franti played the anti-war marches in San Francisco. Pray for Grace is a favorite, although it sounded even better and more soulful live and acoustic.

I have something like 3000 CDs and know the music of kajillions of bands. Michael Franti and Spearhead make the top five. Elliott Smith has a song called "A distorted reality is now necessary to be free." Usually I agree with that, but not when I listen to Spearhead. Franti travelled to Bahgdad to visit children in hospitals who'd been blown apart by bombs, and play music for them. He can bring this reality into your mind--a reality most of us strive to hide from (with the able assistance of our media)--but he does it in such a graceful way that we are moved to sorrow but at the same time we are in touch with the joys of life.

This music will make you whole again. It is catharsis to a dance rhythm.

Buy it. Support Spearhead. Go see them live.

Said Franti at the show: "It takes more courage to reach out and connect with people than it does to bomb them or strap explosives around your gut."

I am not generally a big fan of hip hop, rap, etc. However, I must tell you that this is the CD that I have waiting for ever since the Bush war era started. It's great to see a musician who isn't beholden to the big corporations and isn't afraid to speak his mind.

On top of it all, Franti is extremely gifted musically and the CD is great listening. It's impossible to listen to this music and not want to move around and sing (or shout, as the case may be). The phrase "We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace" keeps paying in my head. You gotta get this!!! I am planning to send this to as many friends and family as I can, and maybe even my congressmen...

Michael Franti is a musician who has sat on the border of my consciousness ever since I heard The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy's "Television, The Drug of a Nation" on radio years ago. Imagine my surprise when years later I'd hear this superb protest song and discover after a bit of research it was the same guy who penned that disturbingly fantastic rap song. So I went out a picked up a couple CDs, including "Everyone Deserves Music", and I can safely say why the heck isn't this guy bigger? Franti and Spearhead effortless blend genres.

"Everyone Deserves Music" has the protest piece I heard-- "Bomb the World", and it's really quite an example of what Franti has to offer-- soulful, defenseless and honest, concerned not with any self-interest but with finding a solution-- "we can bomb the world to pieces but we can't bomb the world to peace".

The rest of the album maintains an enormously high level of quality, blending driving pop ("What I Be"), reggae ("Pray for Grace") and rootsy rock ("Love, Why Did You Go Away?") and a dozen other forms. The result is unnervingly brilliant.

Invariably, I can't imagine anyone wouldn't find something to love on this-- this album is remarkably good. Highly recommended.

I am not a hip hop listener, generally. I can dig the beats and a few artists have good things to say in a musical way. Micheal Franti is one of them. I dig good grooves and I believe this music really came straight outta reggae. I can dig a good beat when I hear one. My family is into Spearhead and I've always been resistant. But, this grew on me pretty quick. I dig it. I give Micheal credit for the vibe of unity he brings to his live shows that have been reported to me. Personally, I would like to hear a little more authentic african percussion in this sort of thing, cause I'd really like to see REAL African culture being represented among African-Americans. But, I wouldn't want it to get in the way of the messages. I didn't hear any of the slack, ignorant sounding lame-ass vocabulary I associate with the majority of this kind of music. This is overall musical. There is nothing wrong with trying to make a living with music so, I don't see Franti as a sellout in any stretch. Everyone does deserve music. One love

I just can't get enough of this album. I first heard of Michael Franti & Spearhead when hanging out at a friends house who only had three cds, one of which was "Stay Human." In no time I found the lyrics from that album running through my head all day, so I decided to make my next cd purchase a Spearhead album. Since I got this cd it has become the most played album of my collection. Never have I hear a musician draw from so many genres of music so effortlessly. The album has such an array of different sounds, and each song is diverse in of itself. When you add that to some of the finest contemporary protest poetry, you're left with an irresistable cd that is perfect for any situation... chillin' out by yourself at home, or cranking up the positive vibrations at a party. If you like any forms of hip-hop, soul, r&b, reggae, folk music, or really any good music in general, this is a must have for your collection