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Dehconte was raised in a house of men. One of nine sons, the musician cannot recall a time when life was not draped with melody, when it did not capture and buoy him in sound. From the likes of Fala Kuti, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Vinx, Prince Nico, and Rick James, Dehconte discovered that the power of music lay not in its reach, but in its depth. “All my life I have had a strong need to express myself creatively,” says the artist who fled his country in 1986 to escape the social and economic hardships of the time. Despite the size of his family, Dehconte often wafted in loneliness, and welcomed the company of poetry and songwriting. His letters expressed his joys, frustrations, delights, and sorrows. These writings would one day take the shape of two beautifully composed collections of music.
When asked from where her motivation came, author Gwendolyn Brooks once remarked: “If you wanted a poem, you had only to look out a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing.” For Dehconte, it was music- ethnic drumming,Jazz and African Pop- that need'nt be searched for. from his window in (Bushrode Island) Monrovia,Liberia the young artist listened to and gathered a bundle of eclectic music that he carried with him,like a satchel of insprition, at his hip.Today that imagined satchel has not moved: it still swings from side to side, and is dripped into daily as Dehconte searches for and creates earth-shaking organic music..
Dehconte's first CD, “Do You Feel Me?” met a need. Fans found, in the very veins of Dehconte’s music, nourishment. Hungry for a good grove, they could look to the beat and be comforted. Starved of passion, they could turn to the lyrics and rest in their honesty.
Dehconte’s latest work, “Liberian Libation,” is the consequence of a personal, inward search focused on exposing his musical core. And from these roots, a presentation of history and emotion grow. The CD parades classics like “You Are My Sunshine” and “Shake, Shake, Shake, Senora” but expands their traditional rhythms to include a moving, contemporary air. Essentially, Dehconte “africanizes” them. This mix of conventionality and innovation, of domesticity and the exotic, is welcomed and wraps the listener in a warm, rhythmic shawl. The anthem “Ponytail Princess” seeks the singer’s lover, whose thick, dark lips and big hips have captured his adoration and endeared him to her. “Sinful Passion” is aptly titled since its musical arrangement reminds the listener of deep purples and love making. “Wata Police,” though, validates the musician’s inventiveness; it discourages the listener from ever letting go of the CD; it leads music fans to believe in Dehconte’s longevity. Hypnotizing to say the least, the song’s instrumental background, lyrics, and pure ambiance lull the listener to Heaven. Collectively, all twelve songs call for volume—they beg to be turned up loudly and danced to. They beg for listeners who are interested in depth and celebration. No music collection is complete without “Liberian Libation.”
When Dehconte is not creating, he is teaching the students of Baltimore City. A Special Educator, the multi-talented artist earned degrees in Piano Performance and Special Education from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Texas Woman’s University in Denton Texas, respectively.
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