Rootfire first covered West Cork, Ireland-based artist, DMac Burns, back in September of 2023, when our writer Brendan McGinley authored a Video Premiere for his song, “Night.” At the time, the singer seemed to be just dipping a toe into reggae, but since then, the New York City-raised musician has leaned heavily into the genre as evidenced by the music he’s released over the past few years.

In part, this has been fueled by his musical partnership with Matias Saldivia Comas, an Argentinian keyboardist and “dub specialist” Burns befriended after moving to Ireland in 2022. As I had cited in my 2024 song premiere for “Whatever It Will Be,” Comas and Burns “bonded over the fact that they were city boys living in rural Ireland with a shared love for roots reggae and dub.”

However, Burns’ gravitation toward reggae music goes beyond his ties to Comas. “Reggae has always been my favorite style of music,” he told me.  “I learned to play guitar and sing at 13 years old because I wanted to play reggae.”

Matias Saldivia Comas and Danny McDonald aka DMac Burns

Burns played in reggae, ska, and punk bands in NYC from the time he was a teenager into his late 20s. “I had such a respect for the music and culture and for those who pioneered it, that I think I convinced myself I wasn’t worthy of playing it, so I tried some other things for a while,” he explained about his previous work. “When I first launched DMac Burns as a project, I was trying to be open to many different genres and styles, and I was exploring indie pop and r&b songwriting as a practice. I’m happy with the songs that came out of that exploration and I learned a lot, but I wasn’t being totally true to myself.”

Continuing, he said, “When I moved to Ireland, I felt called to reggae music again. Being so far away from home, having kids, and getting a bit older makes you reflect on what really matters. I felt like I was at a point in life where I could honor the style properly and align with the values I was writing about, so I started making the music I wanted to hear. It also helped that I met Matias and he was really into playing reggae and making reggae beats.”

I, for one, am glad Burns has been following his calling. Together with Comas and the team of collaborators they’ve been working with including Comas’ bredren from back in Argentina, Glik, a producer and drummer for the band reggae El Natty Combo, Burns has been putting out one beautiful track after another.

The latest, “Mountain Top,” has quite the origin story. Burns shared, “This might sound a bit crazy, but ‘Mountain Top’ came as a channeled message following a series of ancestral lineage healing sessions I did over about a year. It was the gift at the end. It’s hard to describe how clearly it came through, but I’ll just say that I’ve never experienced anything quite like receiving this song.”

For the uninitiated, according to ancestralmedicine.org, Ancestral Lineage Healing “is the practice of connecting with and tending to your ancestors of lineage to bring balance, insight, and healing across generations. It’s rooted in the understanding that our ancestors are not only part of our past but also present today, influencing the well-being, beliefs, and patterns in our personal lives, families, and culture. This work invites us to recognize and honor the gifts of our ancestors and repair wounds or disruptions that may have been inherited and passed down over time.”

Burns recounted his experience with the practice: “I worked with a trained practitioner in who is also a friend. She basically works with spirit to create a sacred space and facilitate communication with an ancestor or ancestors from one lineage at a time. The idea is to find the most healed ancestor in a lineage, develop some communication and trust, and then allow them to heal wounds, generational trauma, or anything that is no longer serving the lineage up until the present.”

Burns said that there was a bit more to it, but for the purpose of this article, he didn’t want to get too deep into the weeds. He did add, “I understand this might sound strange to those who do not have experience communicating with spirits or entities outside of linear time, but all I’ll say is that quantum physics and modern sciences are starting to catch up to, and align with many ancient indigenous practices, so I think it is only a matter of time until this kind of thing becomes common knowledge.”

Delving back into how “Mountain Top” blossomed from his ancestral healing sessions, Burns recounted that in one of the sessions, he connected with an ancestor who asked him to sing his song, “Ancestors,” on top of a specific mountain in County Sligo as an offering.

“No surprise there,” he laughed, explaining that the song “is a reflection on the pain and sadness held by the ancestral memory of trauma and how that shapes our current world. It is a firm affirmation to break ancestral curses and build something new.”

Receiving the request to go up the mountain “felt pretty wild,” Burns told me. He  almost jumped at it, but the mountain is about a 5-hour drive from where he lives, and there were many factors and things going on in his life at the time that prevented him from doing it.

Then, randomly, a couple months after that session, he and Comas were offered a gig not too far away from that mountain. The day after their gig, he and Comas hiked to the top and played the song. “It felt like a ceremony or something,” he said.

A few months later, in his final healing session, he received “Mountain Top” as a “heart to heart transfer” from his deceased grandfather. “I could hear it and feel it, but I didn’t have time to write it down that day. It lived in me for a night and the next day it all just came pouring out. I tried to keep it as undiluted as possible.”

Burns said he wrote the words he heard and then tried to figure out what it all meant. “To me, the song is about unity through the force of love that connects us all,” he said. “It’s a call to reclaim ancient ancestral wisdom that exists in all cultures around the world. And, it’s a rejection of the parasitic class that wants to extract every bit of resource from this world and our souls.”

“Mountain Top,” follows suit with the music that Burns has been putting out lately – modern roots reggae with introspective and inspirational messaging – songs inspired by ancestral healing that also rally against the despotic and greedy government and their corporate co-conspirators, who, like insatiable vampires, have been sucking the common people of world dry financially, emotionally, spiritually and even physically.

“It’s very important to me to speak out against the tyranny in these times and I’ve really been guided by forces beyond my comprehension to make these songs,” Burns said. “The greed is unreal. Resistance is essential.”

While I suppose that props are due in part to Burns’ deceased grandfather, his  latest single features thought-provoking lyrics with impressive phrasing, such as this passage:

Uprising to our multidimensional higher selves
With word, sound, and power combined we’ll all share the wealth
There are signals of unity transcribed in light itself
Geometry of the sacred, astronomy from the ancients,
Autonomy through patience, Deuteronomy was wasted
On dogmas whose faith’s been weaponized for hatred
No longer will we take it, we’re stronger when we break bread
So shine your light with faith when ancestors rise and shake hands

Burns explained that the above passage is about claiming the power we have within ourselves. “We are multidimensional beings with a great capacity for love and kindness, but there are powerful forces looking to divide us and pit us against each other,” he said. “As the great elders of reggae music have taught us time and time again, with word, sound, and power we can shape a new reality. Humanity is meant to unify and that unity is coded within light, the natural world, and the stars. This notion can be overwhelming, so patience is required in order to find autonomy from the oppressive forces that surround us.”

Also elevating the song, “Mountain Top” features a guest appearance from none other than Josh Heinrichs, a deeply respected reggae veteran hailing from Springfield, Missouri who first rose to prominence as the lead singer of internationally known indie-reggae group, Jah Roots.

Heinrichs brings soulful singing that almost feels like wailing, the emotion of discord coming through his pained delivery. He penned his own verse, which urges listeners to embrace love and stand up for what is right:

Love is the only solution
That can start a revolution
It could free up the nations
And destroy all the hatred
So don’t stand there in silence
And just leave us in pain
‘Cause you know all this violence
Is spreading every single day

Josh Heinrichs

Worth noting, Heinrichs plays a big part in the overall vibes of the song, as his contributions go beyond the above verse. In fact, the first vocals heard are his, and his voice joins Burns’ in harmony during the choruses. To that end, big ups to the masterful mix by Glik as it sounds like Heinrichs is singing side-by-side with Burns despite being separated by the Atlantic Ocean when they each recorded their tracks.

Burns explained how this collaboration came to be. “To be honest, the tune always had a place for a featured verse, but I decided to let the universe give me a sign before approaching anyone about it,” he began. “Just after we finished our tracking, Josh randomly tagged us in an Instagram story of him rolling blunts to our song, “Dance and Sing,” in Hawaii. I didn’t know him personally, but I had been a fan of his for a few years, so it was exciting to know that he dug our music. His combination of soul and roots always spoke to me. Plus, he is insanely prolific. I’m still hearing new songs of his that I didn’t know about. Anyways, I sent him a message with the tune and asked if he’d want to collaborate on it. He said he loved the song and he was down, but he had a very busy schedule at the time. We knew he would do something amazing, so we were happy to wait. After a few months, he sent us his parts, and we were blown away. It was definitely meant to be. I think this is the perfect time to be releasing a song like this.”

Looking ahead, Burns and company have “loads more songs” in the works, including plans to drop a full-length LP before the year is out.