The man formerly known as Cat Stevens is standing on the side of a dirt road in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, hitchhiking. Yusuf Islam’s thumb is pointing toward town. His companions are dozens of Joshua trees, a few goats and Allah, who has been his guide ever since he pulled out of the music game and converted to Islam three decades ago. Now, at 60, he’s playing music again. His hitchhiking journey is actually a high-budget music video for his new album, Roadsinger.

This new CD is a swan dive into the open sea and quite a switch for a man who spent the past three decades in retreat quietly raising five kids, running two Islamic schools in the UK, founding a charity for kids and making only a few faith-based records for Muslims. Cat Stevens’s catalogue still sells well into the millions decades after his retreat—since 1991 alone, he’s sold 6.2 million albums.

Roadsinger is a compelling mix of Cat Stevens’s simple but deep songwriting, Islam’s optimistic worldview and that voice. Islam traded one type of notoriety for another when he bowed out of his music career and converted to Islam in 1977. Islam chose a faith that’s often misunderstood and feared, changed his name to reflect his beliefs and abandoned his fans for it. Yet his biggest struggle came from within. There was, for instance, all that rock ‘n’ roll excess to contend with, which would never jibe with living a clean, simple life. But as the decades passed, Islam—with the urging of his son, Muhammed—came to the conclusion that his music and his faith did not need to live in exclusivity from one another.

... contd.