Beyond 'Legend'

Five Reggae Artists You Might Like (That Aren't Bob Marley)

You find yourself at a party, discussing music with a few people, and you let it slip that you like reggae music. The host's girlfriend happens to overhear.

"You like reggae?! I LOVE reggae," she exclaims, and off to the sound system she skips.

You wait for it. You know it's going to happen. Sure enough, Bob Marley's Legend is switched on, most likely track 3 ("Could You Be Loved") or track 4 ("Three Little Birds").

You smile and nod, realizing at least it's better than the Katy Perry, Psy, or whatever else that was just on the speakers.

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This isn't a knock against Bob Marley & The Wailers or Legend; I happen to have Legend as well as a few other Marley albums. I think he was an amazing talent, an amazing individual, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to Marley. I particularly like listening to Live!, Catch a Fire, and Uprising over Legend, but hey, that's just me.

Saying you love reggae music but only having select tracks of Legend in your music library is like saying you love sushi, but only order the chicken teriyaki roll. 

You're missing a whole bunch o' awesome doing that. In both cases.

So I'll help you out a bit; below are my five reggae artists (and a few of their albums) to ease you off of Legend and into a new realm of groovy beats.

1. Peter Tosh
Legalize It is his most popular album, followed by Equal Rights. Another option is Live & Dangerous, or you can get a taste of almost everything from The Best of Peter Tosh.

2. Black Uhuru
Their Red album has been one of my most frequently listened to albums in the past few months, but I haven't dived into any of their other albums...yet. Bear with me.

3. Aswad
London-based Aswad have busted out over 20 albums since the mid-seventies. Albums to pick from are their self-titled Aswad or Live & Direct; personally I went with Aswad's The Complete BBC Sessions double album set; I couldn't resist a good deal.

4. Gregory Isaacs
More "make out" reggae than "party reggae," Gregory Isaacs pioneered the lovers rock sub-genre of reggae. Unbelievably, he has over 500 albums released in his name. So where to start? Try Night Nurse or one of the many compilations, such as Best of Gregory Isaacs or The Millennium Collection.

5. Burning Spear
Winston Rodney, aka Burning Spear, first arrived on the roots reggae scene in 1969 and continues to perform and release albums to this day. With over 30 albums released, there's lots to pick from. Get started with the Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost double album, Jah Kingdom or Resistance, or dive in with a compilation album such as Burning Spear: Gold.

BONUS ALBUM
King Tubby & Soul Syndicate
I debated including, and decided not to include, King Tubby & Soul Syndicate in the list of five. For one, they cross the boundary from roots reggae to dub. Secondly, this was (to my knowledge) their only collaboration. King Tubby was a pioneering sound engineer with his name on, in my estimates, three million reggae albums; if you like what King Tubby does with Soul Syndicate in Freedom Sounds In Dub, it won't be hard to find more of his work. I really like Freedom Sounds in Dub, and you might, too.

*          *          *

Disclosure #1a: I am not a reggae guru, nor do I claim to be. I like listening to reggae music, but I have never desired to dive into the history or the backstories and connections that exist within the genre.

Disclosure #1b: Nowhere in this list do I say "Top 5" or "the five best" or anything of that sort; it is simply "five," as in "Five Artists That Aren't Bob Marley That You Could Possibly Listen To And Like Instead Of Listening to Bob Marley." Also, as I said above, this is not to shit on Bob Marley or to say these artists are better than Bob Marley. They're just different.

Disclosure #2: I prefer roots reggae to the other sub-genres of reggae, as this list will demonstrate. Perhaps exposing Legend-only reggae listeners to other roots reggae artists might make it a little easier to broaden their music libraries.

Disclosure #3: I will state again, for the record: I am a non-pot-smoking reggae fan. It's true: we do exist. Also, for the record: I don't give a rat's ass if you smoke pot or not...just don't do it on my damn job site.

Disclosure #4: All of the album links go to Amazon.com, of which I am an affiliate. In plain words: you click on the Album link, go to Amazon.com, and if you buy the album, I get a commission of 4% (I think...).

Boat Bass Bike Beats

Time/Date: 1320, 01-Dec-11
Location: Fredericton, NB

Anyone & everyone who is reading this should take 20 minutes & totally clean their email inbox. Delete all the unnecessary, and archive the necessary.

Or just go & declare email bankruptcy, and delete all of them.

JFDI. You'll thank me for it later.

Onto the good stuff.

Boat

I can't remember if (or how in depth) I mentioned my boat.

Right before I went to Idaho for work, a friend sent me a text saying he was selling his boat & looking to upgrade. I replied back, "how much?" My next text message was "Sold!"

The boat is a Grumman 1752 aluminum hull with a Evinrude 50hp two-stroke motor.

And I can't be happier (though I still dream of someday owning this).

Not only did I purchase the boat via text message, I also paid for it via email Interac transfers while in Idaho.

Ain't technology wonderful.

Of course, due to various travel & changing of the seasons, I only got out once in it before we winterized it. But it's ready to rock for next spring!

Bass

Of course, now being a boat owner, the logical next step would be to fish more from a boat. To facilitate that (i.e., having even more of an excuse to fish), I decided I'm going to enter a few of the local bass tournaments next year.

But I'm doing them with the fly rod.

Kicker is, rods must be less than 8' in length for tournament angling.

My 6wt Redington Predator setup, at 7'10" fits the bill nicely, and I've had considerable good fortune fishing with it already. But I wanted another bass-specific fly rig, preferably in the 7/8wt range for tossing bigger bugs and such.

To top it off, Cameron Mortenson of The Fiberglass Manifesto and his unholy army of glass geeks might have been able to brainwash me a bit on the smooth casting actions and fun fish-fighting capabilities of fiberglass rods.

So I posed Cameron the question: recommend a decent 7/8wt fiberglass rod that is under 8' in length.

He came back pretty quick with Cabela's CGR. At 7'6", it does the trick, and at $99, it does said trick quite affordably. Conveniently enough, I was in Idaho & heading back to Boise, where there is a Cabela's located pretty close by to my hotel.

Cabela's CGR. 7'6", 8wt, 3pc. My bass-buggin' rig.

I'm all about supporting your local fly shop. As much as humanly possible. But sometimes you have to bend your own rules. Especially when it comes to a 7/8wt fiberglass rod, under 8' in length, and under $100. Besides, where do you think the reel, backing, line & bass-bug fly tying materials are going to come from?

On top of that, when Chris at Fredericton Outfitters starts carrying the Sage line up this winter, do you think I'll be able to resist this?

So support your local fly shop. 97% of the time, at least.

I did get the CGR out once before things shut down for the year (same day I took the boat out for my one & only ride as a boat owner). The unholy army of glass geeks were right: it does cast smooth...once  I figured out the action & how to cast it...

Thanks, Cameron! And sorry, Chris...I won't ever do that again.

More Bass

I ordered a couple fly fishing for bass books. They should be here soon (edit: I just rec'd a call; one of them is at my local independent book seller awaiting pick up now!!)

Once I dive into them a bit, I'll share what they are & whether or not they're worth your hard-earned time & money.

Ummm....Support your local independent bookstores!

Bike

In my quest to be a cheapskate, burn less gass & save money live a more sustainable lifestyle & lessen my impact, I'm gonna try to become a bike commuter.

(Note: I'm not sure what I'll be commuting to, however. I don't work locally. I'll figure something out.)

I got in touch with Kent, local twitteratti and guru of all things pedal-driven. Never settling for something easy & always looking for something I can leave incomplete (fly tying app? learning photo editing software? building a homemade wind turbine?), I wanted to build my own bike and perhaps learn some (semi-)practical knowledge of bike maintenance.

Kent set me up with a frame, seat, fork, derailleurs, cranks, and a bunch of other thingies I don't know the name of, as well as a shopping list of other do-dads. The two local bike shops, Radical Edge & Savage's, filled out the rest of the stuff on the list. And Kent is gonna learn me how to wrench a bike this weekend.

(Note: I can't say enough about how awesome & helpful the dudes at Savage's were. Go there for all things bike. Seriously.)

Kent's asking price: fly fishing gear & local knowledge.

Mat receives: bike & bike maintenance knowledge.

For the second time this post: "Sold!"

I'll post some pics of the bike build we're doing this weekend in an upcoming post.

Ummm....Support your local bike shop!

(Sense a theme yet? This wasn't planned. Seriously)

Random Cool Thing #1

Using Google Maps to outline the route on an envelope.

Random Cool Thing #2

This piece of graffiti.

Beats

More reggae. Enjoy.

(click here if you can't see the video below)