Baked To Perfection by Gingermon

Many years ago, April of 1966 to be precise, Bob Dylan proclaimed in the song Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 that everybody must get stoned. Fast forward to 53 years later when an Irish American reggae artist living in Ohio, who goes by the name of Gingermon, releases an album that features a heart shaped picture of forest green Sensimilla marijuana buds on the album cover and titles the record as Baked To Perfection (Midwest Coast Records). So, now it’s just like déjà vu all over again.

Gingermon, or Tim Gandee as his family named him, is a white guy with red hair who looks more like a surfer dude type Limp Bizkit fan than a purveyor of some primo reggae music. From the opening tracks on Baked To Perfection to the closing dub remixes of two of the tunes this collection captures the heady essence of that Jamaican flavored music genre with passion and precision. Babylon Say Freeze, the aforementioned opener is an eclectic mix of classic dancehall sounds mixed with a twinge of psychedelia then shaken, not stirred, with syncopated rhythms that will rattle your brain enough to drive a man, or a woman, insane. It was a wild card to play as an album opener, but it sets you up for what’s about to come later on in this recording.

What does come later on with Baked To Perfection is a string instrument combo of what sounds like banjo and ukulele cover of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison where the rhythmic accent is placed heavily on the offbeat, which is often referred to as the skank in this form of island music. Here Gingermon switches up the lyrics when it comes to the part about betting those riders on the train from which he hears that lonesome whistle blowing are probably drinking whiskey (instead of coffee as in the original version) and smoking something other than big cigars, if you know what I mean (wink, wink – nod, nod, say no more…say no more…). This is also the number where the Gingermon gets to show off the richness in the baritone register of his voice.

Every album worth listening to always features at least one song designated as the radio single and One Track Mind is the track chosen here. Traces of ska and rocksteady styles are detectable if you listen closely to this one. The lyrics are a lamenting for the warmth of past summer times when you’re stuck in a bleakly cold Midwestern state like, shall we say Ohio? I believe we shall. Unlike many full length records which have only one true radio single Baked To Perfection proffers up several other strong contenders such as Traveling or Miracle, just to name a few. Then there’s Sativa that may either be an ode to the herb, a love song dedicated to one bearing that name, or maybe even both. One Track Mind is also one of the two songs on the compilation that receive the dub mix treatment by the Predator Dub Assassins as the setlist winds down and comes to a close.

Dylan may have hinted at way back then what Gandee, or Gingermon, now lives within the modern day world. More countries around the globe and an increasing number of states in the USA have now legalized, or at least decriminalized what was once known as locoweed, reefer, the devil’s lettuce or wacky tobaccy. But this change has come about more slowly than anticipated by what cannabis consumers would have expected. At least now the medical benefits as we well as the benign recreational use of marijuana and its derivatives are being grudgingly acknowledged and accepted more and more with each assigned day. There’s still quite a ways to go down that road, legally speaking, but as any Robert Zimmerman fan will tell you, the times they are a’changing, and Baked To Perfection by Gingermon is yet another testament to that change.

gingermon.com