I've always been a bit of a 60 and 70s reggae fanatic but unfortunately too young to have seen any of my favourite artists during that golden era. Despite snobbishly ignoring most reggae produced later than 1982, I decided to visit Brooklyn to watch the 61year old Winston Rodney perform.

The concert was surprisingly far better than expected. I was pleased to see a horn section up on the stage as my biggest gripe with modern reggae is the absence of live instruments. The keyboards were rubbish but (after a bit of a wobbly start) Winston was terrific. The musicians backing Winston were adequate and not a patch on the gentlemen playing with him during the Marcus Garvey or Man In The Hills era. Oh dear, am I sounding too pissy?

Moaning aside, I had a lovely time. A nice crowd and beautiful weather. The abundance of plain clothes cops pretending to be reggae fans was a bummer.

This was a great night. The crowd was HUGE, and so friendly and loving. I really felt like I was at a family reunion. As a person, who's rarely shy about talking to strangers, it was a nice to be part of this group of fans. We joked, played with babies, and shared our excitement. When Burning Spear came out, we all roared. The lion was in full form that evening. He ruled the crowd with the know how of a benevolent dictator. He gave so much but demanded we give, too. His voice was strong and he danced and pranced with abandon. At the end of his very long set, he thanked us all for our love, "It keeps the spear burning BRIGHT!"

Downside: Amazingly large police presence. I've never seen that many cops patrolling through the crowd or outside as I did that evening. Considering that this was a family event with lots of families, children and couples, it really annoyed me that they were both so present and so insistent on pushing back and forth through the crowds. David Byrne's show was WAY more packed and there weren't nearly as many cops. *Grumble, Grumble*

While some people over sixty are content to plan for retirement and enjoy day to day life, Winston Rodney (aka Burning Spear) and Naomi Shelton are still entertaining massive crowds and performing with nfectious ebullience of young musicians. Last night Shelton opened for Burning Spear as an enormous audience squished into every conceivable pocket of space inside the packed Prospect Park band shell.

Naomi Shelton is a gospel singer from Alabama who is signed to Daptone records. She took the stage wearing a shimmering gold dress, with her Gospel Queens (three female back-up singers), a pianist, a drummer, a guitarist and a bassist. Shelton isn't as nimble as a twenty year old soultress would be, but she sings with the passion tempered by the experience that only a long life can bring. Shelton’s voice has a low, weathered, almost masculine quality-- it sounds like she smoked a pack a day for twenty years -but she still retains the range of a talented singer. The group opened by playing an instrumental twelve bar blues before Shelton and her queens joined in, doing a well practiced version of “Wade in the Water.” Shelton’s set covered mostly religious tunes belted out by the skilled ensemble as the crowd looked and listened. At the set’s conclusion, Shelton waved goodbye with amiable politeness before departing the stage.

Shelton performed admirably, but the massive crowd hadn’t come to see Shelton; they had come to see Burning Spear. As Spear’s estimated time of arrival drew closer, the audience grew even larger; it’s swollen mass spilling beyond the band shell's fences and making the adjacent area crowded as well. Burning Spear is a legendary Jamaican artist and contemporary of Bob Marley who continues to create powerful music four decades after he began performing. Like Shelton, Spear’s music incorporates religious aspects although his spiritual focus is Rastafarianism rather than Christianity.
“Brooklyn are you ready?” shouted Spear’s rhythm guitarist as the group took the stage without its iconic leader. The band included two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, a keyboardist and a horn section. The group jammed a bit sans Spear -its offbeat accentuated reggae rhythms punctuated by crisp lines from the horns. Then the band built tension with sparse instrumentation, a hiss of symbols prominent; lights flashed on and off, and Spear finally burst onstage. The crowd applauded wildly while Spear bounced on his toes and rotated his shoulders like a seasoned boxer entering the ring. The band played a well executed set of quintessential reggae referencing Jah and Marcus Garvey over waves of echoey dub. At the end, Spear and the band walked off stage, returning to play “Call on You” as an encore. “Do you want some more?” Spear repeatedly called out to the enraptured crowd. Indeed they did. Though his dreadlocks and beard are now streaked with grey, Spear still has enough power and vitality to keep up with his young band, as they entertained the enamored audience with a long set while smokers unabashedly filled the park with the scent of marijuana.

Tonight's show at Prospect Park Bandshell was the biggest crowd I've seen there, though I hear tell that David Byrne was more insane. Regardless, it was packed -- there were people everywhere, and I'm amazed that it was as easy as it was for me to find anyone inside the barricades. I knew that it was going to be more intense than shows I've seen there before when I was walking up to the entrance, late, and was still surrounded by crowds of people walking in or meeting friends outside the fences.

On the walk up, I heard the musical strains of the opening act already on stage, a full and soulful sound coming at me from over the heads of the audience members. Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens were singing praise as the opening act, taking their time on stage to showcase their gospel music for the crowd. While it is gospel music, complete with religious messages, it didn't feel overly pressing or preachy to me. Her music has been described as "informed by the church, perhaps, but soul music nonetheless," -- and that was what I got out of it. It was a hand-clapping, toe-tapping performance from the lovely ladies of the Gospel Queens, and when you're faced with something that happy and upbeat, it's hard not to jam right alongside them.

After a brief intermission, it was time for the man everyone had been waiting for -- Burning Spear. A legend in his own right, Burning Spear is Rodney Winston, a wildly influential roots reggae singer and musician who's set the bar for contemporary reggae and won Grammys doing so. He's known for his positive message reinforcement in his songs and his firm belief in self-reliance for all African descendants. There was no shortage of that message at the show last night, and from the looks of it, the crowd was glad of that fact. Despite the calming effects that the music had throughout the night, there was no doubt that the crowd was fired up and passionate about the act they were seeing. Burning Spear put on a great show, though: he probably could have stood there and done nothing but smile and people would have loved it. Throughout the night, he'd yell into the crowd. His favourite phrase was, "talk to me, people, talk to me!" And every time, without fail, a huge roar would go up from the people in the audience.

And the people around us were just as fun to watch as the show, as well. Many of them, as LJ put it, "took their Burning Spear very seriously." There were quite a large number of die-hard fans in the audience at the bandshell last night, dancing through the entire set and calling out to him, even when Burning Spear hadn't started a call-and-response with the crowd (though that did happen, at one point). From tiny kids to older fans, New York turned out in full to see Burning Spear in concert. With credentials and music like his, it's easy to understand why.