A Jamaican reggae singer standing on a Tennessee farm, singing a Diane Warren song nobody has heard before. That is the image Gramps Morgan opens with in his new video for “I Wish That,” and it sets the tone for one of the more unusual projects to land in reggae this year.
The track comes from Songs in the Key of Diane: A Reggae Compilation of Diane Warren Songs, a collaborative album that runs Warren’s catalog through reggae and island music.
“I Wish That” is previously unreleased material, so this is not a cover of a radio staple. It is out now through Island Empire, part of Regime Music Group.
The song itself is a slow, hopeful ballad built around a simple wish for a world without war or loneliness. The lyrics call for kindness and forgiveness, and they land on the idea that love is the only thing worth fighting for. That line flips the language of conflict into something people can actually build on.
What keeps it from tipping into greeting card territory is a moment of doubt. The lyrics admit the whole vision might only be a dream, before settling on faith as the reason to keep hoping anyway. It is optimism with its eyes open, which feels like the right call for a peace song in 2020s headlines.
Morgan explains the farm setting in plain terms. “I also wanted to have the reflection of me manifesting peace into the universe by showing the beauty of Nashville, Tennessee, especially in the summer,” he says. “Me on the farm just hoping this world could be one world.”
The Nashville connection is real, not a styling choice. Morgan, known to many as a member of the family group Morgan Heritage, first played the Ryman Auditorium while supporting India.Arie, and that night pushed him to make the city home.
His solo album Positive Vibration mixed reggae with country and soul, was produced by Johnny Reid, featured India.Arie, Shaggy and three generations of Morgans, and picked up a 2022 GRAMMY nod for Best Reggae Album.
Warren comes at the project from the opposite direction. She has spent decades writing across pop, rock and country, and she says she rarely knows who a song belongs to when she writes it.
“I write songs without having any idea about who can perform them, and then along comes an artist who fits it perfectly,” Warren says. “That happened throughout this project.”
That approach raises a fair question for reggae purists, since the genre’s conscious tradition has mostly come from artists writing their own experiences.
A hitmaker’s composition entering that space could feel borrowed. Morgan’s answer seems to be that the message travels, and his blend of Kingston roots and Nashville living gives it somewhere to land.
With the rest of the compilation featuring other reggae and island artists taking on Warren’s songs, “I Wish That” is only the first look at how far her writing can stretch.
