Album Review: J.S. Ondara Tells You “Tales of America”
J. S. Ondara has a voice that makes me want to start a prayer. He gets to the soul of love, and elevates it into listening ears. Yet, in Tales of America, it is not about love of another but love of a dream, particularly of a country.
In a times where hate crimes rise and rhetoric about/ actions towards immigrants grows increasingly life-threatening, i.e. migrant children, the Kenyan singer reminds us of the “American Dream.” For some reason, we have both forgotten and dissipated the American Dream; a vision that everyone from everywhere could do everything in this exceptional nation. History shows us that such a dream was not, necessarily, reality, but the idea that is could come true motivated people to give their best and do better. Such a notion pulses through tracks like, “Torch Song,” “Lebanon,” and “God Bless America” remind listeners of how much people wanted/want to come to this country out of hope: not greed.
St Francis of Assisi said. “For it is in giving that we receive,” and, for J.S. Ondara, the immigrant lives by this code. You come to a new country not to take from it, but to give to it what you could not give to your own because of circumstance like, your hard work, your creativity, and your hope for a brighter tomorrow. From “Days of Insanity” to “Good Question” or “Give Me A Moment,” J.S. sings to the immigrant/ human being that want to give his or her all to America, but confronts the colder fact that not America is not always genuine when it says, “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.” J.S Ondara’s capacity to face this truth with a sound that feels time-capsuled by 1950’s blues, Motown soul is perfect.
There “nuclear family” was born in the 1950’s, and became a staple image for the American Dream. All over the world, people saw the white picket fence and the happy, working family living in their two-story town house. Thus, in using the sounds and styles of this era, J.S. Ondara unveils that harsher, current backdrops that muddles this dream. Luckily, he has a voice that is clear and spearing with its vocality that, even though he sings to the depletion of the American Dream, you cannot help but hope that such powerful imagination will return and be realized. For More Information On J.S. Ondara and To Buy Tales of America on February 15 Click Here.
