“They’re a poor man’s Galactic”, the banker in the dark charcoal suit standing next to me tells me. Though I have no idea what Galactic is, or what a suit is doing watching a self-proclaimed funky-reggae-rock-soul band playing at Fontana‘s (I later learn that it’s an obscure jam-band, and they’re friends of the band from University of Miami), I nod my head in agreement anyway. The suit is soon joined by more men wearing brown herringbone skinny ties and I arrive at the conclusion that it’s corporate night at the music bar.
As hard as it is to take these men in floral shirts with highjacked Jamaican accents from Washington seriously, it gets harder to maintain my level of cynicism a few minutes into their set. The crowd begis to sway with abandon to the jazz harmonies in “What A Time”, and not even the staff is immune to the hard hitting horn lines of “The Motions”. Feel Free even spews a lyric or two about having a thing for a girl with sleeve tattoos in “Popcorn and Alcohol”, a song built around a chord progression reminiscent of Young the Giant’s “West Virginia”, granting them major star power from the crowd.
Feel Free is by no means a band that’s going to ritually treat their hair the way it’s described in Chapter Six of the Book of Numbers, but there is no doubt that they will create genre-bending music that brings all sorts of people together. By the end of the night, everyone left Chinatown feeling free, thoroughly impressed by the band’s musicianship.
Holding court above the Niagara River Gorge, Artpark in Lewiston, NY on June 25th was an idyllic setting for an evening of roots reggae featuring Ziggy Marley and his band, with Steel Pulse in support. A way laid back crowd was chilled out by the lush surroundings and a noticeably heavy ganja haze. After a smoky and celebratory set by Steel Pulse, the humid and heavy Summer evening brought an ambient island vibe created by the performed reggae ‘riddims’ and perfect weather.
Ziggy and his bridge bolt tight backing group set the thematic tone for the evening with the opening song “Love Is My Religion”. Prior to its beginning, Marley, head tilted back in a meditative stance, encouraged the assembled crowd to “Rebel with Love”. Marley often preceded his songs with a quote from their lyrics and a short rumination on their content. The collected crowd of Rastamen, college kids, Deadheads and happy families all slipped into a similar groove as Marley’s band played the crowd into a mellow mood.
“Wild and Free” followed, Marley’s paean to marijuana, which Marley sang with great conviction, eyes shut, hand rising toward the collapsing sky. Marley stood at center stage in a flowing white top acting as a didactic freedom fighting Rasta, spreading his musical gospel message to the gathered masses. The group assembled around him, organically throbbing their way through dancehall, ska, rock, club beats and one drop, deftly and with attitude throughout the evening. Marley’s keyboardist also added some ‘toasting’ to the tracks, the Jamaican act of a DeeJay talking or rapping over undulating rhythms.
Marley likens his live concerts to fully formed stories told through the narrative of the individual songs. This evening was comprised of many essential chapters, each musical piece a solitary element constructing the fully fleshed out picture of the performance. The band premiered a nice chunk of the recent Fly Rasta release to great effect, the newer songs taking on additional unrealized details in their live renditions while nestled comfortably next to Marley’s previous work. The set also contained past Ziggy Marley glories played in addition to ‘Melody Makers’ favorites which had the crowd joining in with their own lyrical voices.
The show started to hover above the ground when Marley decided to reach into his late father’s catalog of music for an ‘irie’ performance of “Lively Up Yourself”, one of a few of the elder Marley’s songs performed over the course of the evening, in addition to “One Love” and a penetrating, “So Much Trouble In the World”. During “Lively Up Yourself”, Marley gave a musical shout out to his famed Father with a, ‘Big Papa told ya so’ lyrical quote followed by great applause. These musical appreciations to his Father were so tasteful and natural, they fit perfectly into the natural flow of the show, unlike other ‘tributes’ to Bob Marley which often come off as contrived.
As the concert continued and a veil of darkness dropped over the venue, the jamming got deeper and the dancing heated up; the reggae became more fluid and the rhythms more playful. Artpark was transformed into a sweaty dancehall maelstrom of love, dance, and Rasta vibes. All that was missing from the night were multiple bottles of Red Stripe being imbibed and some steamy sand.
“Black Cat” became a show highlight with Marley allowing his band to stretch out on the track, with his guitarists illustrating their improvisational authority. Similarly to his studio releases, Marley’s music takes on a plethora of insular, as well as pastoral and rural, themes, hence its huge web of influence and attraction to fans from all walks of life. Marley has accepted and taken on the role of disseminating his father’s developed message of love, peace, and freedom for the world as well as creating his own uniquely ‘Ziggy’ message.
The stand out and title track of the new LP Fly Rasta signaled the beginning of the end as it was fittingly slotted to start the encore. Its message and imagery of flight not only applies to Rasta, but to all of those who respect the strength and love created and spread by reggae music. Its fundamental theme of finding yourself, respecting others, and of ‘One Love’ illustrates neither prejudice nor favorites. Marley’s ideal is that anyone and everyone can find the Rasta magic through the acceptance and enjoyment of reggae.
Ziggy Marley at Artpark was the type of concert one longs to be able to witness. Low on pushy crowds, obnoxious drunks and poor sound, this particular performance contained everything a fan could hope for when taking an excursion for live music, quality musicians, positive messages and a collaborative experience between band and crowd alike.
Ziggy Marley’s new musical offering Fly Rasta combines many of the essential elements that make up Ziggy Marley as a Rastafarian, music artist, and the son of a legend. The multifaceted record reaches to the ends of the musical spectrum, touching on pop, roots, reggae, funk and soul. Marley easily navigates through numerous genres and influences, referring to his sonic hybrid appropriately as ‘Ziggy’ music.
Now past the age reached by his famous father, Ziggy’s discography has now arrived at its natural maturity, taking on all aspects of Marley’s philanthropist pursuits in its content and context. The album expresses the basic tenants of Rastafarianism, love, respect, hopefulness and nature through childlike expressionism uncluttered by pretense or unneeded obscure lyrical references. There is a consistency of focus on the record that is retained regardless of the thematic or genre excursions undertaken.
The opening track and single, ‘I Don’t Want To Live on Mars’ begins with a straight pop/rock hook that dissolves into an addictive funk groove. Marley expresses that he does not want to leave earth, nor does he have to, regardless of man’s progress or Earth’s natural disasters. This is not his father’s Reggae, this is a celebratory creation built around the integrity of Marley’s past life experiences and his forward thinking compositions that defy simple classification.
The title track spins like a vintage dancehall groove from 1960’s Jamaica. Supported by vocal assistance from ‘U-Roy’, Marley pays his respect to and reminds his fellow ‘Knotty Dread’s that it’s time to soar. The groove is relentless, a steady heartbeat of the soul, disorienting, a pounding organic dance groove with a directive for Jah people to rise.
The album is a grower, similar to the plentiful green Ganja fields of Jamaica that stretch toward the hot Caribbean sun. It soaks into the listener’s skin after repeated listens like salty ocean air. A testament to its divergent styles continues with the luminescent ‘Lighthouse’, a straight forward, but alluring, rock ballad that sits on a muted reggae guitar nestled into its 4/4 beat.
‘Sunshine’ and ‘Moving Forward’ use archetypal reggae as their launching pad, sunny compositions rooted in Ziggy’s natural element, draped in horn lines and unique guitar melodies. ‘Sunshine’ features a ticklish sitar solo midway through the track, adding a unique texture to the song.
‘You’ is one of the songs that perfectly illustrates Marley’s unabashed combination of musical and world elements as the song moves from ‘One Drop’, to a funky Hammond organ breakdown, and then through slick and smooth soul middle eight. Resinous wah-wah’d guitars and slick backing vocals, in addition to start and stop rock break downs, makes this one of the finest arrangements on the LP.
Photo credit: Roxanne Haynes
The intimate ‘So Many Rising’ paints a troubadour on the beach at dusk, singing to the world through the deep, dark, and reflection of the night sky. Unadorned hand drums and an acoustic guitar are the only instrumentation on this song of hope and encouragement, clearly understood through its transparent and woody arrangement.
‘I Get Up’ follows and features sister Cedella Marley, adding her sweet vocal abilities and family support to the track about battling through every day issues and living in and for the moment. Warm descending bass lines and alternating horns tickle the melodic sense of the song.
‘Your My Yoko’, and ‘Give It Away’ close the album on a positive and grooving note. ‘Your My Yoko’ is a testament and tribute to women as a support system, muse and as representative Earth Mother, through a syncopated major key arrangement. The closing song, ‘Give It Away’ fittingly concludes and bookends the record with a delicious ‘riddim’. The song begins with soft vocals crooned by Marley that explore the melody of the track. The tune then moves into a gently undulating reggae groove that then suddenly shifts into a circular funk for the songs central change. ‘Only if we give it away, can love be love’ is the concluding message and a simple note to leave behind after the experience of the record.
Ziggy Marley has now reached the point in his successful career where his legacy is in place and he has grown into his substantial shoes. The music he is disseminating to the world is truly his music, created by and stamped with his aesthetics. Marley is proud of his history and his roots, but does not let it overwhelm his need for discovery and creation. His lyrical voice expresses a proud and historic awareness, but never a pretentious or didactic attitude. It seems Marley has reached a sun-drenched plateau of confidence and security where he can develop new and interesting ways of communication through the re-imagining of the medium of reggae.
Key Tracks: Fly Rasta, So Many Rising, Give It Away
Despite the conflict-laden name, Rebelution has a way of coloring everything with positivity. The band has always led with that feel, both lyrically and musically. Now in their tenth year, Rebelution is releasing their fourth studio album in Count Me In with many of their fans eager to hear what the Cali-based foursome have been working on as of late. While I’ll say that they certainly delivered, there were still a few surprises in there along the way and a few that were close to instant classics for me.
The album opens on the title track, featuring a rolling bass line that almost has a swing to it and full of upbeat the band is known for. When I asked drummer Wesley Finley about how they decided to open with this one, he said, “I do have to admit that we struggled with the track order quite a bit this time, all the way until we were going to print! Since we titled the album after the track, it eventually made sense to put “Count Me In” first. Besides that, the track really embodies the general sound the band represents so we figured it would be a good introduction.” These guys haven’t made it to their tenth year missing the mark and the opener is no different.
With all that said, the first song is merely a setup for the album standout “De-Stress.” That might’ve been by design though as Finley says, “We followed that up with “De-Stress” because it’s up-tempo and keeps the momentum building.” The opening one-two punch is a great start to the album and a possible set opener we might see this summer. The driving intro of “De-Stress” in and of itself makes the song, but singer Eric Rachmany hops around the rhythm with his delivery and adds another dimension to this track. The chorus of “And I might stress/Yes I might stress/ Too blessed to be stressed” are some nuggets we could all live by. In the world we live in today, a little de-stressing could do everyone some good.
As the album progresses through the tracks, two stand out in back-to-back fashion once again: “Lost in Dreams” and “Fade Away” showed some growth and experimentation from the band. In some cases it felt and sounded great, like the soothing close of “Fade Away”, but something held these two back. That being said, young bands could learn from these guys as Rebelution knows exactly where to push the boundaries; these two tracks weren’t far off. When asked about the creative deviation, Finley said, “We produced “Lost in Dreams” with a friend of ours named AmpLive, who is half of the hip-hop group Zion I and a beat maker for other hip-hop artists. We tour with them every once in a while and are mutual fans of each other’s music, so it was inevitable that collaboration would happen.”
On that collaboration note, the album features two guest appearances in the form of “Hate to Be the One” (Collie Buddz) and “Roots Reggae Music” (Don Carlos). Both guests are great fits for their respective tracks. When asked about how they chose the two, Finley said, “Collie Buddz we knew from touring together. He had come up on a song or two of ours live onstage over the years and the band is a fan of his voice, which is distinct from him being Bermudan. We sent “Hate to Be the One” to him and he came back with a whopping verse that we were very impressed with and knew we had to use. Eric’s main vocal inspiration has always been the reggae veteran Don Carlos so we instantly thought of him for “Roots Reggae Music”. He too has come onstage to sing with us for years, mostly to his own song we covered called “Johnny Big Mouth”, so we thought it would be great for him to sing something new for us. Our sound engineer is the infamous Errol Brown, who worked closely with the Marley family for many years, so when we mentioned we were thinking of asking Don to be on the track he said, “Call him up and pass me the phone. I’ll get him to do it!” We all listened as they caught up over the phone in a thick Jamaican patois. It was a classic moment.”
Left to Right: Marley D. Williams (bass), Wesley Finley (drums), Eric Rachmany (vocals/guitar), Rory Carey (keyboards) Photo Credit: Kurt Hudson
The album wraps up on two songs that take a darker twist. “Against the Grain” starts off with a mesmerizing horn phrase that transitions to a vocal rally cry to whoever might be listening. The empowering words come with a hint of attitude and grit. The title is the perfect fit as it stands on its own compared to the rest of the album’s sunny positivity. It has almost a “Bad Boys,” fist in the air, fighting-for-your-beliefs feel with Marley Williams running a darker line to color the song. “Invasion” closes the album and keeps the rebel feel going. The last two songs are my favorite combo on the album and feature a darker, more serious tone for the band.
It’s funny to think, now, that they struggled with the order of the tracks as they couldn’t have decided upon a better layout in my opinion. In flawless fashion, the band has woven together a cohesive, yet varied album that features what they’ve built their careers on while still progressing forward.
The album drops Tuesday, June 10th, with preorders being taken here. If you’ve been a fan of the band, or even looking to hear some new reggae, you’re going to want to check this one out.
Key Tracks: Against the Grain, De-Stress, Invasion
One of the longest running annual music festivals in the country announced the artist lineup for their 2014 installment Thursday and lucky for NYS Music readers; that festival is centrally nestled in Upstate New York.
Celebrating their 24th festival this year, Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance unveiled the artists who will be gracing the multiple stages at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds July 17-20.
Spawned as a brainchild from Grassroots host band, Donna The Buffalo, the 2014 Grassroots lineup has some notable national acts coming to the Finger Lakes. In addition to multiple sets from the aforementioned Donna the Buffalo, other Upstate artists include The Horseflies, John Brown’s Body, Sim Redmond Band and Jimkata, just to name a few.
However, some of the headlining artists should also assist the box office with ticket sales. (Not that Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance has ever had an issue attracting music lovers.)
“We’re very excited about the lineup,” Festival co-founder and Donna the Buffalo front man Jeb Puryea told on Thursday following the artist lineup. “This year, we’re pretty happy about having Dickey Betts & Great Southern coming. I mean, that’s pretty awesome. We’re also pumped to have Lake Street Dive coming this year. They’re an awesome band, who is real up and coming, so we’re lucky to have them coming by this year.”
Lending to the down-home vibe, no one artist really ever outshines the others 80+ artists each year at Grassroots, but Puryear was quick to mention that Lake Street Dive, who recently donned the March issue of Rolling Stone was heralded by the publication with “This Year’s Best New Band” tag.
“I am also personally excited to have Anders Osborne coming by this year,” Puryear added.
Other notable acts include regulars Preston Frank and His Family Zydeco Band, Keith Frank and Soileau Zydeco, Danay Suarez, Driftwood, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad, Jim Lauderdale, Big Mean Sound Machine, Black Castle, The Speckers, Afrobeta, Joe Driscoll and Sekou Kouyate and Keith Secola and His Wild Band of Indians.
Ranging from Americana to alt-country, roots/reggae to afrobeat and bluegrass to jam, Grassroots continues to provide festival goers with one of the most eclectic lineups in the country, let alone Upstate New York. Many also still contend the no-hassle, on-festival grounds camping with local foods and drink are some of the most affordable and hospitable atmosphere one can still find amongst music festivals.
This weekend, Albany, NY is going to get hit with a massive storm and there will be no snow involved. The tropical reggae sensation, Spiritual Rez, from Boston, will be unleashing their unrelenting dance party at Red Square on Saturday February 8th. The seven-piece ska funk band is the best thing to come out of Boston since baseball and chowder. They have played some of ’s top festivals last year such as The Catskill Chill and Backwoods Pondfest. Spiritual Rez’s music is unpredictable as they segue from a chill reggae groove into a heavy metal scream fest and then a full on ska free for all. As explosive as their instrumental music is, they have lyrics that everyone can relate to about everything from falling in love to fighting for their right to party.
Lead singer Toft Willingham is a pro at revving up the crowd as he thrashes all over the stage and loves to compete with the audience on who can be louder. This is a band that you want to party with, from beginning to end and still want to hang out with the morning after. Spiritual Rez has a new album being released on Saturday February 15th, Apocalypse Whenever. The album has already been voted as one of the Top 30 on the radio chart on Jambands.com. They are hitting the road hard this spring and its only part one, as they travel all over the Northeast and make their way down the coast. Check their website for a list of their tour dates. Below is their official music video for “Don’t Be Afraid” off of Apocalypse Whenever and if you like what you hear, you can pre-purchase their new album on iTunes.
Tickets are $7 online and $10 at the door to this 21+ event at 8pm with Suitable Groove starting the night at 9pm. Albany’s own, Suitable Groove, is a four-piece hard hitting funk rock band that you won’t want to miss as this band is sure to be no stranger to the growing music scene in the Capital District. This Saturday night will be the best way to shake the snow from your soul and breathe in the summer sound of Spiritual Rez.
Celebrating their 24th festival this year, 