Avion Blackman Invites Fans to Experience the 'Sweet Life' on Thanksgiving Weekend

Christafari member performing over 100 concerts in 25 countries in 2008

Nashville, TN - Sweet Life, the highly anticipated follow-up to Avion Blackman's award-winning debut album, will be released by Lion of Zion Entertainment and Infinity Music Distribution on Thanksgiving Weekend 2008. A staple member of the group Christafari (recognized as one of the Top 10 Reggae Artists in the World by Billboard Magazine), Blackman pays tribute to her Caribbean heritage this time around with a breezy blend of organic roots reggae with echoes of folk, worship, World, soca, R&B and neo-soul.

Blackman is currently promoting the new album on an extensive world tour with Christafari, performing more than 100 shows in 25 countries in 2008 alone, including concerts in the USA, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, England, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Antigua, Trinidad and Brazil (where they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in February!).

Born in Trinidad, Blackman lived in luxury as a daughter of the famous calypsonian, Lord Shorty, who was the inventor of Soca (the pulse of Carnival) and Jamoo music. As a young dreadlocked child, she was very outgoing and began singing on stage in front of massive crowds at the tender age of four. That year, her life drastically changed when on a spiritual quest, her father transplanted his massive family to the jungle, where she would spend the next twenty years living seven rugged miles from the remote Indian village of Pirapo.

The Blackman home was a log cabin with no doors, windows, plumbing or electricity. Blackman was home-schooled and her large family (that consists of 24 brothers and sisters) lived primarily off the land growing virtually everything that they ate. Their days were filled with Bible study, intense rehearsals, various tour dates and regular performances for curious visitors.

Blackman learned the art of harmony while touring and singing background for her father, who took on the name Ras Shorty I after his conversion to Christianity. At the age of fourteen, she began playing bass for the family band, The Love Circle, and eventually began recording solo material of her own.