Soulful singer, songwriter, musician, and activist Fantastic Negrito (neé Xavier Dphrepaulezz) has announced his brand new album Grandfather Courage, a reimagined acoustic version of his acclaimed 2022 album White Jesus Black Problems.
Alongside this week’s album announcement, Fantastic Negrito shared the single and video “Highest Bidder” (Acoustic Reimagined). The stripped-back acoustic takes raise the lyrics to the fore, and the music is no less vibrant and potent. He says: “If you want to take your mind, body and soul on a trip check out the reimagined recording of Highest Bidder through the lenses of my touring band. At the time, I was listening to a lot of African drum patterns, and that definitely influenced this song. I’m trying to convey what I see when I walk down the street here in Oakland.”
“Highest Bidder” (Acoustic Reimagined) is also our Song of the Day.
Part love story, part history lesson, the multimedia project tells the defiant tale of his seventh-generation white Scottish indentured servant grandmother Betty Gallimore who was living in a common law marriage with his seventh-generation African-American enslaved grandfather, Grandfather Courage, in the face of the racist, separatist, laws of 1750s colonial Virginia. Fantastic Negrito shares, “The incredible story of my seventh generation grandparents was so profound. I reimagined it through the lenses of my touring band. Please check it out unplugged unapologetic reimagined.”
Fantastic Negrito plays Celtic Connections in Glasgow on February 5th, with further UK dates at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on February 6th and The Lower Third in London on the 7th. Full tour dates and details can be found here: https://www.fantasticnegrito.com/tour