Ben E. Hunter is back with Cross Roads, his ninth album, continuing down his unique lane with "New Orleans Afro-Caribbean Folk Music." Though his story is quintessentially New Orleans, it's also far different from that of most musicians. As expected, it was a no-holds-barred talk with insight and perspective.
Back in 2020, Hunter was opening for Delfeayo Marsalis at Snug Harbor, playing
new music with his acoustic guitar. Four years later, those songs have become Cross Roads, crafted by Hunter and produced by multiple Grammy-winning Darius "Deezle" Harrison at The Throne. It has the intimacy of a personal conversation, whether touting New Orleans as a good-time city or looking at the still-haunting geography and mental terrain from Hurricane Katrina.
Hunter praised right out of the gate, "Having a producer like Deezle-he's a
genius. We met through my friend Cheo Martinez, who I call "The Connector." I had these songs about growing up in New Orleans. I explained to Deezle what the idea was and told him I wanted a producer to bring the concept to life. He understood and captured it." Deezle returned the favor, saying, "It's a mutually digestible and understandable language that speaks to each of us differently, but it's a form of communication that can't be denied. When two people jointly like something, it just makes a connection that can't be explained and doesn't have to be." The first song they worked on together was "Rock A While," the kick-off single and video. Hunter admitted he was stunned, having been accustomed to the drawn-out recording of previous albums. He described his tracking as, "The process was -15 minutes, one take, and we had a song. Deezle said, 'Don't overdo it. The song will tell you what to do.' I think he got that from Donald Harrison Jr."
Hunter continued, saying, "My whole intention is to give a sense of New Orleans.
I'm expressing New Orleans being the big party city, but the flip side of it is crossroads. Our theme-having experienced Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans-was the whole aftermath of that over these years, and how it still affects a lot of people."
As for his own songwriting process, Hunter reflected: "The songs flow naturally. It's the energy that comes through me. I wanted it to be less complicated as possible, so the
average listener can interpret it and know where I'm going with it."
Hunter spoke of two key inspirations when he said, "I would have a mindset of-how would Bob Marley or Peter Tosh approach these songs? I want to create a story of New Orleans." Hunter noted a few of the musicians assembled by Deezle include Raja Kassis on guitar, Yahel Yisrael on keys, Cameron Watson on organ, and Aaniyah Anderson on background vocals.
Ben E. Hunter has spent over 35 years in the music game, but even so, he started at 30-years-old. This meant his pre-music life experience was bound to be interesting. It started in Treme at the corner of St. Ann and Robertson.
Hunter recalled, "Ed's Cab Stand was across the street. They played music 24/7. The corner was always energy, something was going on morning, noon and night. I would sit in the window and listen. They played New Orleans music. Probably WYLD with DJs like "Friendly" Larry McKinley. This was the early '60s. That's how the music got in me. I remember second lines with hundreds of people and my mom egging me on to dance."
His school life began at Joseph A. Craig Elementary School, and in tenth grade, he started at St. Augustine High School. Elliot Willard was St. Aug principal at the time, and Hunter said, he "was helping the underprivileged kids to be able to go to school there."
Hunter wasn't doing music, but, of course, he was surrounded by it. He recalled, "I had friends I grew up with who were musicians like Leroy Jones. Our senior year in high school, his band toured Europe."
What was he focused on instead? "I played football," he said. "I had never played organized sports until I got to St. Aug. My junior year was my first year. I was a receiver. I thought football was a game and fun to have something to do outside of running the streets. I realized I had some talent through trial and error. We were
state champions my senior year at a time when we had to play against the school and the referees. It made me know that if you get together on one accord and have an objective with everybody playing their position, you can do a lot. We had schools wanting to give scholarships to all the seniors because of our ability."
Hunter got his college scholarship, but since he graduated at age 17, his mom wanted him to wait a year. He admitted, "I stayed around and started dibbling and dabbling into some negative things. I eventually went off to Grambling. Eddie Robinson was the coach. They had a call for walk-ons, and I tried out for the team. Out of 100, I was the only one left. I thought I was the best player even though I walked on. I didn't like the politics though. I had an opportunity to transfer my sophomore year and got a scholarship to northwestern Oklahoma. Population maybe 2, 700."
Was it a culture shock? Absolutely, but he said, "I'm always open to new things. I think it's important. Some people there had never been around a Black person before. They only knew what they'd seen on TV. They learned from me too." His senior year brought a series of events that changed the trajectory of Hunter's life. It was the only time he got injured playing football and it happened twice. He recalled, "The first thing was that I got knocked out in the game. It was a dirty play. I was out for 15 minutes. The next thing was that I blew out my kneecap. I had ambitions to try out for professional football. When I blew my knee out, I withdrew from school, came home, had surgery and started training. The Houston Gamblers gave me a contract, but I realized I didn't really want to play."
Hunter began teaching and working as a counselor. Soon after, a riverboat concert experience was a lightbulb for the next phase of his life. "My first reggae concert was Peter Tosh and Sly & Robbie," he said. "I didn't know anything about it. It was amazing. I remember I got the Mama Africa tour, t-shirt and wore it out. When you're seeing Peter Tosh, it's not just a concert. It's much bigger."
He came to discover the New Orleans influence on reggae music and the culture connection. Rastafari religion began to speak to him. Hunter reflected, "I was more inclined to that kind of religion. I knew that Eastern philosophy is on the spiritual side and the West is on the material side. My uncle was a Muslim. He turned me on to the idea of nutrition and diet."
Not only did reggae bring about a social and religious awakening but eventually a form to express himself. He'd never played music before, but he had been writing, saying, "A lot of guys in college looked at me a little weird because I wrote poetry. I always liked that kind of expression, to be able to use words, put it all together, make a real statement, and bring it to people. I'm much more of an artist than a musician. I use the music as a canvas."
Hunter realized a hybrid of New Orleans, reggae. and folk music was his special calling and unique contribution. It came out that way, especially because he also liked Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins. At age 30, he picked up an acoustic guitar.
By the late '80s, Hunter was immersing himself in the New Orleans reggae scene. He started out with a bass and drummer duo called Selassie Servants, joining them on the mic to perform dub poetry over their sound.
Next, he got an electric guitar and put a band together called Plantation Posse to do original songs. He reflected, "It was a way to be able to learn music on the fly. I was building confidence in what I was doing, because I had no musical background. I realized I had to record my music to capture the moments in history. I started late in music, so I wanted to have something tangible. My first CD was A Freedom Song. It took two years to put it together. That whole experience was a learning process, not thinking of the impact it could be on other musicians. The other groups were all playing reggae covers. To stand out, I would do my own songs."
As Hunter was growing his sound and building a name, people were noticing. The Jazz & Heritage Festival reached out to him, and by 1991, the same year as his first release, his friend Danny, from Jamaica, assembled a strong band around him. He said, "I remember we were the opening act at the Congo Square Stage and might have started with 150 people. By the time we ended the show, the lawn was filled. I was in the zone. I realized if you have the right group of musicians and the right sound, that can carry you."
From playing local festivals, Hunter next joined the Bob Marley Festival Tour for years and played promotional shows in Jamaica as part of Reggae Sunsplash. This allowed him to begin to gain national press. He had been visiting Jamaica since the early '80s and it still speaks strongly to him. In fact, he and his wife Aminata were married in Negril.
While his musical name was expanding, his old football injury came to impact him in a sobering way. "I was diagnosed with epilepsy," he said. "I was having seizures but didn't realize that's what it was. I had temporal lobe epilepsy. My football injury
was a skull fracture. I needed to get my health together."
Hunter took the time to get himself right and is a model of health and fitness. Authenticity is important to him. Now, with his new Cross Roads album, he's bringing his music to a new audience unfamiliar with the formative Cafe Brasil days and the US heydays of reggae, but they will recognize keen insight and a life lived in his songs.
He stressed, "I was born to be an observer. I use all my personal experiences to come to conclusions about things in the world. If you stand in that position, connect to universal thought, and you coordinate with the laws of nature, then you have a different power and perspectives in the world."
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