Johnny Dread

This Cuban-born Miamian dropped a promising basketball career to hang out at Bob Marley's mother's house, playing and singing with Bob's half brother Anthony Booker as well as Ziggy and the gang. Forming his own band, Copacetic, Johnny had some short-lived success in 1990 before retreating to the mountains of Jamaica. Now he's back with the first volume of a planned seven-album series, lavishly packaged with multiple gatefolds. Chapter 1 opens auspiciously with the lush keyboards, solid rhythm and exquisite percussion of "Who We Are" and delivers a winner with "King and His Character."From the South African-flavored guitars of "His Majesty" to the down-tempo blues of "Armageddon" to the searing guitar solos of jammin' cuts like "Roots," this well-produced effort is aimed squarely to please fans of the Third World/Peter Tosh school of rock-influenced cultural reggae. Johnny's voice is deep and authoritative; he's got the Jamaican accent down, and he obviously loves Emperor Haile Selassie Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.