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BIG MOUNTAIN REUNITES AFTER 10 YEARS APART TO RELEASE ITS NEW SINGLE “DEPORTATION NATION”, IN SUPPORT OF IMMIGRANTS

Quino Mcwhinney, John D. Marquez, and James Mcwhinney. Photo by: Elena Rojas

Known worldwide for their hit ‘Baby I Love Your Way’, the band returns with a single to create awareness of the problems suffered by immigrants in the U.S.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, December 4, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Big Mountain, the reggae band internationally known for its reggae remake of Peter Frampton’s “Ooh Baby, I Love Your Way”, is making big news in 2018. The song that the whole world fell in love in 1994 and was part of the soundtrack for the hit movie 'Reality Bites', starring Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, recently landed another big movie placement with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

“Ooh Baby I Love Your Way” has proven to be one of the most successful reggae releases in history, currently exceeding 3 million streams per month on Spotify and keeping Big Mountain busy touring the world year-round.

The band culminated their tour by crafting a new track that reinvigorates the band’s roots in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and its commitment to using art as a tool for social justice. “Deportation Nation” is a dark and fierce roots reggae rebuke to the Trump administration’s immigration and border enforcement policy and a broader history of border militarization. It features the spoken word performance of Dr. John D. Márquez, an acclaimed author and professor of Ethnic Studies and Latinx Studies at Northwestern University. Márquez is a veteran activist against border militarization, police brutality, mass incarceration, and other injustices. He and Big Mountain frontman, Quino McWhinney, met in the mid 1990s as members of a grassroots organization that was addressing human rights abuses at the border. They have been artistic interlocutors ever since. As Quino explains, “We wanted to demonstrate to our undocumented immigrant sisters and brothers that the band Big Mountain stands in solidarity with their plight. We believe that all people have a right to travel far and wide to fulfill their dreams, especially when it comes to bettering their lives and the lives of their families”.

With recent performances on LATV bilingual format television, Univision, and Telemundo’s Accesso Total, the music industry is finally becoming aware that Big Mountain vocalists, brothers Quino and James McWhinney, are Americans of Mexican heritage with strong ties to the histories, peoples, and cultures of Latin America. Their maternal grandfather, Onesimo Arias, immigrated to the United States and settled in the Coachella Valley in 1918. Onesimo was a migrant farm worker whose hard work led him to become a commercial farming leader. He also happened to be a skilled violinist and leader of many conjuntos, folkloric groups of northern Mexico. Accompanied by brothers Palemon on tololoche (stand-up bass) and Gabriel on Bajo Sexto (guitar), Onesimo’s conjuntos played corridos and standards that entertained, educated, and inspired Mexican farmworker communities. Quino and James are proud to further the Arias family’s legacy as artists and builders of community.

The themes and sounds of Mexican and Chicano culture have thus pulsated across Big Mountain’s foundation and story. In 1992 the band pioneered reggae in Spanish with the song “Llena mi Vida”, the Spanish version of “Touch My Light”, the reggae love ballad that would finish top 5 for airplay in Los Angeles city area. A radio disc jockey in El Centro, California spliced together a half Spanish, half English version and Spanglish reggae was born and soon being broadcast to big watt radio stations all over the southwestern United States. On Big Mountain's following album, Unity, the song 'Un Sensual Amor' landed within the top 10 hits in Spain in 1994.

Growing up in San Diego and considering their family’s history, Quino and James were inherently attuned to the plight of Mexican immigrants. They witnessed, first hand, the steady militarization of the U.S. and Mexico border which had a profound effect on how they envisioned their role and work as musicians. Immigration, identity, and racial harmony are thus central themes across Big Mountain’s catalog. “Deportation Nation” is but their latest addition to this body of work.

The bands breakout album Unity, which featured the platinum single “Ooh Baby I Love Your Way,” also contained the roots rocker “Bordertown” with its defiant chorus, “Stolen Land, a nation built on slavery. A poor example of democracy”. The song is a favorite among fans worldwide and is a testament to Big Mountain’s sincere commitment to cross border issues everywhere. As James simply explains "the political system is so stuck on oppressing… and Big Mountain is all about fighting against that".


The 'Deportation Nation' music video was released on October 26th of this year. It was filmed by the border wall that separates Mexico from the U.S. The video was directed by award-winning Colombian filmmaker Juan Zapata, who’s currently in final stages of postproduction of a documentary on the band to be released in a few days.

Since their comeback, the band has already led the Rototom Reggae Festival in Valencia, Spain, One Love Festival in New Zealand, Pol'and'Rock Festival and Colombo Music Festival in Sri Lanka.

Please enjoy the song and video ‘Baby I Love Your Way'.

Silvia Garcia
+1 832-785-7273
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SGG Public Relations

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