Monday, June 24, 2024

Late Bloomer

Construction worker by day, musician by night, Donovan Green is gaining a big audience for his reggae music

By Cathy Miehm

HE IS A SKILLED LABOURER with the heart of a musician and the soul of a poet. Donovan Green is a Local 52 member who grew up in poverty in rural Jamaica but was always surrounded by music and musicians. That sparked a passion that he carried with him when he moved to Toronto 34 years ago.

Throughout the years, whatever his day job might have been, he always found time for music and songwriting. Now, at the age of 64, Donovan’s music is making him popular back in Jamaica. His reggae song “Only Jah Know” has been getting airplay on Jamaican radio stations and is a popular download on several streaming services, under his stage name Valdimir.

“My publisher informed me that I am streaming at over 170,000 [in late April],” says Donovan. “What I am hearing from Jamaica is that my popularity is growing, so I need a booking agent and a road manager. When I acquire them, I’ll be able to do some shows there.”

“Only Jah Know” is a very personal song about Donovan’s childhood, growing up neglected by his mother and father but watched over by extended family and guided by faith.

“I was like a village kid,” he recalls. “The neighbourhood looked out for me.”

He was also under the watchful eye of three caring uncles—Collin, Lanford, and Joseph Grant. He describes Joseph as a “true musical artist” and one of his most important influences.

“He’s a professional musician who can do everything,” says Donovan. “I play some piano and guitar, but I’m more of a lyricist and a vocalist. For me, it’s all about getting the message across.”

When he sent Joseph the recording he made, the response was enthusiastic.

“He said, ‘Man, you better find a label and jump on with that song, because it would be a shame to waste it!’”

“Only Jah Know” describes Donovan’s determination to avoid the easy money promised by a life of crime. It is a message that resonates with audiences when he performs.

“Sometimes, I see tears in people’s eyes when I’m singing,” he says. “Every single song I’ve done has something to do with my life experience.”

As a young man, he saw many of his friends turn to dealing drugs as an escape route from poverty. Donovan refused to make that choice.

“My mentality is that I will not help destroy someone with drugs so that I can look good in a fancy car,” he says. “I suffered a lot, but I never robbed, and I never sold drugs.”

Donovan’s strict principles meant he had to scramble and work hard his entire adult life to support his family in Toronto, where the cost of living has always been high. But that solid work ethic could be counted on to open one door when another one closed.

“I was always willing to do anything to put food on the table,” he says. “And I catch on to things pretty quickly.”

His long career path led to construction work about 20 years ago. He has been with Jasper Constructors Ltd. as a skilled labourer since 2018.

Donovan credits CLAC representatives Roger Grootenboer and Drew Lyons for encouraging him to go beyond performing and record his songs. Once he took that step, the interest from Jamaica began to blossom.

He heard how one radio station “played it three times in succession. As it finished, they just started it again. They said this is a real powerful song, and it’s what real reggae music sounds like.”

The story behind how the song came together is as amazing as its success, says Donovan.

“I was doing night shifts, working on the GO Train Davenport Diamond bridge. I came home and got two phones and locked myself in the bathroom [for the acoustics]. One phone was playing the beat and I freestyled—the words just came out of me.”

Donovan describes a deeply spiritual moment.

“When I started to sing, ‘From sunrise to sunset every day, Lord knows how I’ve suffered and how much pain I’ve been through . . .’ the tears in my eyes and my heart started coming, and the rest of the words just flowed out,” he says. “I set it down in just one take.”

Donovan hopes he can arrange to do some live performances in Jamaica soon, perhaps next year. In the meantime, his construction job keeps him busy, as do his young grandchildren. He also enjoys playing gigs around Toronto, whether it’s at charity events or at parties for family and friends.

Even as he nears his milestone 65th birthday, he has no plans to slow down.

“I could never retire,” he says. “I’m a country boy. Country people never retire.”

“The Fairest Island That Eyes Have Beheld”

10 Jamaica Fast Facts

It is an island formed from the tip of a mountain rising more than 1,000 feet from the Caribbean Sea located about 965 kilometres from Miami and features coastal beach regions and lush rolling hills well suited for agriculture.
It has a population of more than 2.8 million people, with one third of Jamaicans living in Kingston, the capital.
Ninety percent of the population is of African descent.
Reggae, or Ragged Music, was born on the island in the 1950s from the musical styles of mento, ska, and rocksteady.
Bob Marley, backed by his group the Wailers, is the most famous reggae musician.
The endangered Jamaican swallowtail is the largest butterfly in the Western Hemisphere—it’s up to six-inch wingspan is larger than many birds on the island.
It was first settled by the Taino people from South America in the seventh century, who called it Xaymaca, “land of wood and water.”
In 1494, Christopher Columbus—the first European to see Jamaica—called it “the fairest island that eyes have beheld.”
It was one of the largest slave markets in the Western Hemisphere until 1838 when slavery was abolished.
After first Spanish then British rule, the island became independent in 1962.

Source: kids.nationalgeographic.com

Donovan Green

Late Bloomer

“The Fairest Island That Eyes Have Beheld”

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