From a Classic Jamaican Reggae Riddim, Anna and Jawge's arrangement for oboe and keys features Reggae Legend Tony Chin on guitar over a driving drum and bass line inspire this crowd pleaser.

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This is the song Fully Fullwood (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Joe Higgs, Marcia Griffiths...)and his band used to drop hard when opening for Joe Higgs' shows. Joe always liked the way Fully Fullwood would get the crowd warmed up and it was his cue that he had five minutes to get to the stage. I soon learned Joe was a very popular fellow especially when he toured with them in 1999 up to the Bay Area to do a mini tour at Palookaville Santa Cruz and Ashekenaz Berkeley. Scientist was the engineer at Ashkenaz, Joe had brought him in. The respect Joe received everywhere we traveled was most impressive to me. I made so many new friends with Joe. I truly miss him he had so many things to tell me and he loved our discussions. Joe'd heard my music and called all his relatives to come listen to my CD's. He even asked me to record "Capture The Spirit" onto his voice messaging machine along with a message. We argued as I felt the message should say, "We can't come to the phone right now", instead he wanted me to say, "I can't come to the phone right now however..." I explained that it sounded like he'd had a sex change operation and now had become a lovely woman with a gorgeous voice exactly like Anna Fishers!" He didn't laugh, he insisted I rerecord it as "I" . I could understand himno wanting me to say, "We" as he had a lovely fiance and i didn't wnat any miscommunication I was not anyone's "We" so in the end, "I" seemed to make the most sense. His daughter Marcia "Pinky" reiterates that she'd never heard her dad go on so about ANYONE!. She says he called her the minute I'd left his apartment the first visit. He has such a lovely family, family was very important to him. He loved both Rita Marley and Familyman they were both his students. He'd coached them all along the way and it saddened him to know there was so much conflict within the family. His grandson Aston Barrett,Jr. is cousin to Robert Marley so techinically they are ALL family. Perhaps when you hear Marcia tell about the visions of her dad and realize what his significance is to Reggae and music in general you will understand her mission to shout his name until EVERYONE man, woman and child knows who Joe Higgs was and what he sacrificed in his life for his people of Jamaica and for Bob Marley and the Wailers, Joe and Marcia had released "Roots Combination" together in the early 90's. Joe his daughter had many strong ideas about the way women could be treated better by giving them more opportunities and made a point to team up with many a lovely songstresses including Marcia Griffiths! When Joe would tell me the stories of Bob, Peter and Bunny coming to his yard and the inclusion of the I-Threes, the alliance Bob had with his musicians, the beautiful visions of where he dreamed the world could one day be. Where Man could pose a war on Man who carried guns, in WAVE OF WAR "The wave of war is rising like the morning sun. And he who liveth by his gun, his time has come. So let the water and the blood of the wicked overflood, his time has come!" as its chorus. These lyrics still appropriate today helped to motivate some of Bob Marley's successive compositions. I am thankful to Johnny Nash, Bob Marley and all those who helped record (Jawge and the rest) and promote this project (yes you!) but especially my two children, bless them, Monique and Lincoln Liburd.

Fully came by to pick up Joe and I was heading home just dropping off a tape to Jawge to listen to on the trip up North. I mentioned I'd love to go along and Fully said, "Why don't you come with us?" I needed to make preparations at home and pack but was rushing home to figure out how I was going to be ready within 30 minutes when they arrived at my front step. I didn't want to keep Mr. Higgs waiting. He had been having radiation treatments and had good days and bad and wasn't sure yet which one this was. The drive is a good six hours with dinner stop and then the check-in would mean it would be night when we arrived so I hurried! The shows were exceptional, each with a distinctly different flavor. Joe was a delight throughtout the trip until after his performance at Ashekenaz when he was too weak to stand. At a delicious homecooked dinner, back at the hotel prepared by one of Santa Davis' friends, Santa brought up the fact that this was likely Joe's last tour and it seemed the cancer was winning against Joe's wishes. He fought to the end, loved when we could brop by the room at the Convalescent home to sing spirituals. He had been invited to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at Drew King Medical's Jazz Festival and was delightfully tickled that he was getting such respect from a community which HE respected so! He had every intetion of sneaking out of the hospital (California Hospital Medical Center) to sing a few songs with his daughter Marcia "Pinky" as he alays affectionately called her! After Joe's death, as a tribute to Joe I wanted to add this song to my repertoire. It is a favorite Studio 1 hit from Jamaica created by Jackie Mittoo and arranged by Dean Fraser and has been performed by many many artists since. Hope it will encourage you to take a listen to the original of this riddim titled, "Death in The Arena" and the literally hundreds of penetrating riddims that artists have enjoyed performing/DJing over for decades since Joe started the whole irie thing as the unarguable "Father of Reggae" as he was known by those who followed Reggae history. I tribute this song to Joe Higgs, the beautiful citizns of Jamaica, the Caribbean and across the globe.
Never give up, take good care of yourself!
I love you,
Anna