Worton takes the road less travelled

• Guitarist works at finding his own sound

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Watching Jason Lee Worton onstage is to see an artiste who makes the rigours of being a musician, songwriter and singer seem effortless.

The multifaceted musician, who recently formed Stone Dub, has been a member of a diverse set of bands on the live-music scene. Having worked with Crimson Heart Replica, Random Chaos, as well as From The Deep and Roots Uprising, Worton is also a full-time member of Protoje's Indiggnation band.

While many may know him as Indiggnation's guitarist, Worton plays other instruments - the piano, flute, bass, saxophone, harmonica and percussion.

Having been on the scene for years, Worton is building a name for himself with his sometimes folk-like, soulful-yet-edgy reggae-rock sound called 'dub rock'.

The musician has combined his love for classic rock, classic reggae and dub to create his own unique sound.

"The first thing I can remember ever wanting to do was to play music," he recounted recently to The Gleaner. "When I was six or seven years old, I begged my mother to let me take music lessons. I starting off with classical piano and then the guitar and a bunch of other instruments," he explained.

Finding a niche

By the time Worton was a teenager, he was giving music lessons to younger family members and branched off into teaching private music lessons, something he still does today.

After pursuing a degree in psychology at the University of the West Indies, it was on to music full-time, where he tried to find his niche in a music culture dominated by dancehall and to a lesser extent, reggae.

He said: "My journey in music has been bittersweet but really great. It can be difficult 'cause it's a hard field to get into. It's not like you can send out an application and a résumé, so you have to have patience and perseverance."

His journey led him to collide with singjay Protoje in Canada, when the artiste was on the start of his seven-year road to his first album. The two met through mutual friends but only started working together two years ago when they became reacquainted at Jamnesia in Bull Bay, St Andrew.

Since then, Worton has been working closely with the artiste as well as upcoming singer Jah9.

With Indiggnation, Worton has performed at Reggae Sumfest, a Manifesto project in Canada, among other venues. This year, as well as working with Indiggnation, he founded his own band, Stone Dub, which consists of himself and two others.

Stone Dub entered the 'Battle of the Bands' competition, placing fourth.

Worton is now working on music for Stone Dub, building its brand and is hoping to release an album.

"It's all about music. Right now, I'm focused on Protoje and Indiggnation, that band I am passionate about and getting it established. I'm also trying to establish my own band which has a rock-dub vibe, more rock than dub. I was heavily influenced by bands such as the Wailers, Black Uhuru and then guitarists like Jimmy Hendrix and Carlos Santana."