Reggae Rising
Story and Photos by Diane “Livonn” Adam

 

The spirit of reggae music ascended once again among the majestic splendor of Northern California redwood trees.  Reggae fans came from near and far to partake in the 2^nd Annual Reggae Rising held on August 1-3, 2008 at Dimmick Ranch in Piercy, California.  The dedicated staff of People Productions pulled off another successfully festival that further solidifies the family-style traditions it has come to stand for in the reggae community.  Opening the festivities was a moving Native and African ceremony that brought a message from elders to find a balance in the masculine and feminine spiritual forces in this time of war and human suffering and offered their Blanket of Hope for healing the people of the world.

The festival of music got started on Friday, August 1 with an abundance of California artists including Soul Majestic and continued with the authentic sounds of Jamaica with Mr. Easy and the ever popular Cham (previously known as Baby Cham) who gave the crowd a rollicking ride performing songs from his album “Ghetto Story” which ushered in the dancehall selection for the night.  Cham was properly followed by a def performance by Tanya Stephens who continues to wield her own hardcore story-telling rhymes in songs like “Good Ride”, “Boom Wuk”, “What’s Your Story” and “What A Day”.  The night belonged to only one person, Beres Hammond who lit up the stage with his warm and loving sprit that had the ladies crying out his lyrics in unison as he sang his anthem “Putting Up Resistance” and kept the night ablaze with many of his most loved songs.  Yes, the night belonged to Beres Hammond an especially humble artist that always delivers in every performance.  Closing the show was an especially “bad” performance by the UK group UB40 whose loss of lead sing Ali Campbell was glaringly obvious as the band sluggishly tried without success to win over the audience and if not for the powerfully memory of Beres Hammond’s performance would have caused a real bust to the first night of the festival.

 The versatile style of Los Cost Marimbas got the day started on Saturday but it was the performance was the Lion Camp Showcase Ishi Dube and Jah Son that brought the spirit of reggae back to the forefront of the festival.  California reggae was also well represented by rock infused band, Rebelution and the duo Black Judah with Sugar Black and Dylan Judah.  It was no doubt that the great roots reggae sound of Los Angeles based band Detour Posse that injected the fans with an adrenaline shot of their edgy and funky brand of reggae, I love these brothers!  All the hype of dancehall was revealed in the performance of Jamaican artists Mr. Vegas and later by Lexxus who came on stage looking like a young Malcolm X.  Later that night it was a wicked and wild night of “Bass and Trouble” when the original pioneers of reggae music, the dynamic duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare hit the stage with a number of special guest performers.  To make it an even more spectacular night of music for those in attendance, Junior Reid ‘One Blood’ Reid shocked out on his “One Blood” remix and also soothed the ladies when he sang “No One” which gained fame when he recorded it with R&B songstress Alicia Keys. A blazing end to Saturday’s show came with the Judgment Yard performances of Sizzla who glided on stage dressed in white and gave one of the best performance I have seen from him in a long time and blistered though both new and old songs for his fans.  Though many of my male friends tell me that they don’t like it when this yard man sings a love song, for the ladies it’s a sheer pleasure to hear him croon in his unique Sing-Jay style which is also wonderfully evident on his new album, Addicted that further reveals his softer Rasta-mantic side.  Sizzla succeeded in bringing an utterly satisfying close to Reggae Rising’s Saturday lineup. 

Sunday’s show seemed to take in account that we partied hardy on Saturday and needed a more mellow beginning that would ease us into the day of music with truly wicked performance by the Hawaiian reggae group Natural Vibration that had me swaying and bubbling to their special brand of island reggae that included the great Errol Moore on guitar.  Clinton Fearon & The Boggie Brown Band kept the music groovy during the bright and sunny day but it was for me the New Kingston Band that erupted the day with some of the best raw roots reggae music, this is a great band that I am hoping to see more and more.  The New Kingston Band also backed Collie Buddz who the performed his best known song, “Come Around”.   Other noteworthy performance came Julian Marley backed by The Uprising Band and Germany’s Gentleman (b. Tilmann Otto) who’s love of his fans brought him off the stage to sing surround by the massive crowd who embraced him.  Closing the festival was the lovingly warm vibes of Don Carlos (former front man for Black Uhuru) who performed his most loved songs including “Razor Beam” and even performed with special guest artists Rudolph   'Garth' of Wailing Souls and Junior Reid and beautifully achieved in bringing a captivating close to the 2^nd Annual Reggae Rising.