Kay Morris – Unconditional Love

Kay Morris

Jewels Records (2013)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

I don’t know about you, but a CD from a Jamaican native living in Canada that includes a song accompanied by a Ugandan children’s choir would qualify as one of the year’s most globally diverse inspirational projects.

That in part describes Unconditional Love, the eighteen-track CD released in March by reggae gospel artist Kay Morris.

“Save the Children,” featuring God’s Glory Children Choir of Kampala, Uganda, has an African feel, but for the most part, the album blends traditional reggae styles with earth-embracing lyrics.  Whether singing about the importance of universal love (the single, “Letters of Love”) or the preventable deaths of women who die during childbirth (“Women Shed No Tears”) the rock is steady and the lyrics are socially relevant.

This is not surprising.  Morris is a Reggae Gospel Hall of Famer and founder of the Kay Morris Foundation (“Voice of the Voiceless”), a nonprofit that has, among other things, made life better for Ghanaians living with HIV/AIDS.  For her service, Ghana named her Queen Nana Sika I of the Royal House of Berekuso.  In 2007, she received the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award.

Morris delivers the album’s sing-song melodies in the unadorned, straightforward style common to reggae vocalists.  Similarly, the production is sound system sparse, with emphasis on the lyrics and beat.  The anti-hypocrisy “No Stone” will resonate best with reggae enthusiasts for its forceful beat and Morris’s thick Jamaican patois.

During the One Love for Haiti benefit concert in Toronto, Rita Marley invited Kay Morris to join her on stage and sing Bob Marley’s “One Love.”  Many of the songs on Unconditional Love, especially “Letters of Love,” sound like the musical progeny of that classic anthem.  

Picks: “Letters of Love,” “No Stone.”