Some people say they love Reggae, when they only know Bob Marley, where as others spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars each year on every release or re-release that comes across their way. Be it the hard-core fans or the casual enthusiasts, a battle rages amongst Reggae fans as to the state of Reggae in today's world, and more importantly where is it coming from?

Well, I’m here to tell you, unless we’re talking Dancehall which is clearly becoming more and more like Top 40 Hip-Hop, Reggae has left it’s Jamaican roots and is now recruiting an army of multicultural international soldiers for hire. That being said, the battle over Babylon is still coming, and Matisyahu is ready to stand at the front lines.

“Live at Stubbs” is as incendiary as it is unlikely. Matisyahu, backed by Aaron Dugan on Guitar, Josh Werner on Bass and Jonah David on Drums, commands a steady and confident presence switching between booming dancehall style toasting, scat like Hasidic chants and just plain ol’ fashion singing. While the CD on whole is terrific, it’s not until about tracks 3 and 4 “Warrior” and “Lord Raise Me UP” that the band starts to catch the fire that will eventually explode on the very next song “King without a Crown”. Relentlessly, Matisyahu takes the mic and the crowd by storm seemingly channeling the spirit of Sizzla while praising the Lord above. Not to be undone, the band works itself into a fevered intensity, giving the term “Roots Rocker” a proud new meaning. You know these guys are having fun, and it’s only going to get better.

 “Beat Box” is just that, Matisyahu showing off his Brooklyn roots by beat boxing, and yes he’s good at that too.

For me, there are a couple low points on the disc, namely track 8, which quickly eschews any reggae sound for something not unlike a hippy jam band would create. In fact, the only time I didn’t like this CD was when the “jams” would occur. Fortunately, they are few and far between, and aside from the from the aforementioned track, they are relatively short as well. The rest of the disc goes well from there and then finishes big with the two last tracks “Heights” and “Close My Eyes”.

All and all, this disc proves that Roots Reggae is far from dead although far from Jamaica. I only hope that Matisyahu can keep it up, because as he has shown, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jew, Japanese, Swiss or whatever.

Reggae, wherever it’s from, is about the Truth and the Right and we need more of that now more than ever.

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Monkey Man for the Reggae Movement