--Deniece Williams (“Black Butterfly”) 

For countless centuries, humankind has used the North Star as a guide, a celestial marker to further their endeavors whether it be a physical destination or a spiritual one, so when native Philadelphia singer, song writer, and musician GhettoSongBird, consented to being interviewed, it seemed appropriate that it take place at North Star Bar in Fairmount, a place that Mudhoney, The Dirty Guv’nuhs, and Steppin’ Razor among many others have used to further their careers.

GhettoSongBird, born Samantha Jackson, flutters into the bar. Not in a trance like a moth to a flame either; she has her wits about her. She has “it” about her.  Her husband and band member, Ronin Ali, their daughter, Baby Songbird (2), and son, Baby Rhythm (1), join us.  The family is calendar photo material.  Ronin? His self-assuredness glows like an oil lamp in the distance. The Babies? Two cherubs warmed by the only thing that keeps children cozy in this cold world, love.  And GhettoSongBird?  On her website, she writes, “I’ve been carrying my warrior guitar like a sword that saves me everyday from every ism…”  Well, that would make her an Afro Samurai, and her katana is her guitar.

“I actually started off playing the piano, but I fell in love with the guitar,” says GhettoSongBird.  She is a self-taught guitarist, and the discipline of mastering her instrument on her own demanded a focus that helped her deal with the struggles (isms) of everyday living in North Philadelphia on 16^th and Master Streets. She says, “Whenever I deal with any of those isms, I just pick up my guitar…I just meditate and pick up my guitar.” While Temple University has transformed the area, when Ghetto Song Bird resided there, it was a typical inner-city ghetto, rife with the ills described in an average rap song: crack, shootings, etc. Yet, these struggles prepared her for what was to come.  “If I didn’t have that struggle, I probably wouldn’t know how to handle myself in the music industry.”  She adds.  And a struggle it’s been.  She’s been performing for over ten years now without having signed a record deal.  However, if given the chance, she “wouldn’t change a thing.”

GhettoSongBird’s song “Siren” describes aspects of ghetto life. Her guitar riffs reverberate with inner-city angst. Her words tag you like a graffiti artist. “This is who I am! This where I’m from!” her music screams when she’s playing Rock and Roll.  “It’s what I grew up on,” she says matter-of-factly.  It’s “more letting out my aggression, any negative energy I might have dealt with leading up to that performance.”  But she points out that much of her recent work is Funk with its repetitive grooves that “allow you to go somewhere else and just vibe.” There’s also a psychedelic feel to her music which she blames on her mother.  “My mom was a hippy.”  She admits.  That vibe is clearly seen on her website where her name is written in 1960-70 stylized letters, framed against a backdrop of purple, orange, and yellow circles in varying degrees of focus.  Emphasis on varying degrees of focus. 

The colors are important because she says, “For those of us who probably don’t study music, you have to visualize something, and I play with colors…I don’t see numbers and letters and all that stuff that people see who read music.”  Jimmy Hendrix, whom she said played with colors as well, is a big influence.  She credits him, “Muddy Waters, P-Funk, Prince, Living Colour, and Lenny Kravitz” as the artists that have influenced her the most.  When I pressed her for her top five of all time, she just continued to name more superheroes of music, the heavyweights Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

When it came time to create her logo, she used the animated-hero motif for inspiration.   She says, “I wanted to be a cartoon character superhero for kids to listen to.” finding a way to connect her day job, childcare, with her love of music.  Well, she succeeded. In graphic art, she’s illustrated as a hot female El Kabong from the motherland with swagger and a band. “And dooooooooon’t you forget it!”  Her logo is a buxom, winged vixen with a haloed afro.  She’s holding a guitar overhead as she rises above a ghetto skyline. Two large hoops dangle from her ears. There is no sun in the picture, but the bare body of this woman is colored in fiery, life-giving yellow.  The logo is also reminiscent of the cover of Santana’s Abraxas album or the cover of any Ohio Players LP.

 It is good that GhettoSongBird sees herself as a superhero of rock.  She needs to be.  Band leader, wife, 9-5 life.  Mother, fighter, and dope track writer.  She needs to be, but even Storm of the X-Men has days in which she probably can only muster a slight breeze.  However, you can be sure that if there is ever a moment of doubt or uncertainty, if there is ever a time when it becomes easy to lay down her sword, if the melodies and words become few and far between, she’ll remember that although she’s a GhettoSongBird, she’s a black butterfly as well.