Appalachian Reggae - Ras Alan - News

Ras Alan, dB and producer John Brown on WJHL

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Ras Alan sings the summer hit "Organic" with his trusty sidekick(box) dB, and producer John Brown speaks about the Dogwood Park Concert Series 2010, free public concerts in the Ginny Kidwell Ampitheater in Greeneville, TN. Come one and all to free live music on a summer's night!

RAS ALAN & THE LIONS to perform in Boone, NC and Bristol, TN/VA

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Red Pepper Records invites all friends, fans and family to two nights of live Appalachian reggae and reggabilly hits by the Blue Ridge mountains’ own Ras Alan & The Lions, appearing Friday, April 16, at The ReelHouse in Boone, NC (www.thereelhouseboone.com) and Saturday, April 17 at Machiavelli’s in Bristol, TN (www.machsdowntown.com). Specially priced CDs will be available at the shows. Doors at 9pm. Join your neighbors and welcome Springtime to Appalachia... Respect!

Hear more about Appalachian reggae with the band live on WASU fm 90.5 http://www.wasurocks.com/listenlive.php at 7pm EST in Boone, NC before the ReelHouse performance.

For more info please check www.appalachianreggae.com , www.myspace.com/rasalan , www.cdbaby.com/rasalan/all , www.sonicbids.com/rasalan , or the new Face book fan page at www.facebook.com/pages/Ras-Alan-The-Lions/261806503599 .

MUSIC TAKES ANOTHER HIT!

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Well friends, fans and dreadnecks, another stalwart of the southern Appalachian region's musical heritage and legacy has succumbed to the lure of "news and information programming". In their own words:

WETS-FM Adopts News/Information Programming

On Monday, February 1, WETS-FM (89.5 MHz) will undergo a significant transformation. The non-commercial public station licensed to East Tennessee State University will change its weekday programming to news and information.

Monday’s programming change will mean that classical and Americana music are no longer heard at 89.5 on weekdays, although Americana will be featured on weekend programs.

“We have examined programming options for WETS for more than two years,” said Wayne Winkler, station manager. “WETS has been a vital part of our community for 36 years, and we feel this change will best fulfill the mission of the university and of WETS-FM. We feel a new approach to programming is in the best interest of the station, its listeners, and its financial future.”
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Man. Appalachia with no music. This is a travesty and I encourage everyone in the WETS listening region, as well as online, to let them hear from you. My response was:

I just heard the horrible news. News rules! Since Jack Tottle days I've been an avid listener to the intelligent presentation of the music of my home, Appalachia, and it's many variations. Phil Leonard probably singlehandedly educated this whole area on the variety and value of our local culture and musical legacy. In the 1980's, Wayne Winkler's Rock and Roll Over's multi-broadcast specials on Reggae circulated thru Appalachia on cassette for years. Mike Strickland has introduced the area to musicians from all over the globe inspired my the music from our front porches. George Hammond brought other music and musicians to my attention. And these DJs are all good people too!I played my own original music, David Grisman "New Acoustic" tunes and acoustic versions of Bob Marley songs in the WETS studio when it was in the old white house. Myself, as well as many carpenters, electricians, masons, painters, woodworkers and others in the trades, as well as every type of craftsman and artisan in western North Carolina and East Tennessee, have counted for years on the musical accompaniment of WETS for our countless creative projects. My own recorded music has played on the station many times and I've been blessed to bring many of the regions' talented musicians into the WETS studios as my bandmates for live broadcasts. Having a computer run a program and not having a live person in the broadcast booth to answer the phone after a particularly stirring or inspiring or intriging song is bad enough. And now this...

Appalachia with no music? NEVER!

1993-2010: 17 Years of Appalachian Reggae

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

It's amazing to realize the first "Appalachian Reggae" album was released 17 years ago! And the musical style itself was evolving for at least 10 years before that. Many folks in the southern Appalachian region had been listening to, collecting, trading and sharing the wonderful musical experience called "reggae" since the early 1970's. Some of the more adventurous and curious had been to the Caribbean and Jamaica to search out the source of the rhythms and poetry themselves, bringing home to the American mountains stories of dreadlocked families in the hills, all night dance parties in the streets, massive piles of wooden speaker boxes thumpin the latest reggae riddim and of course the clear, beautiful water, lush vegetation and the exuberant smiles of Jamaica's many-colored citizens.

Ras Alan was a musician, aspiring guitar builder, electrician and carpenter living and working in the Boone area in western North Carolina. After hearing numerous reggae cassette tapes at various jobsites, some collected on the beach in Negril, Jamaica, he heard about the grandaddy of all reggae festivals, Sunsplash, held at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In the spring of 1985, he sold a table saw, booked a flight (his first) and bought a ticket to the 5 day festival. When Ras Alan arrived on the tarmac at Sangster International Airport that hot August day, he picked up his backpack and asked how to get to Ironshore, where he'd be camping.

A minibus dropped him at the end of the small sand road, between a couple grazing goats and a Rasta selling coconuts, tossing the green-husked fruit in the air and swinging the machete, just once, to reveal a paper-thin membrane between the cool water inside and the humid density outside. "Fresh!"

And so began a 25 year experiential love affair between a regular, curious, mountain observer, traditional at heart and radical in thought, and the musical muse that would inspire songline, bassline and Lifeline.

Bele Chere 2009!

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The smiling crowds loved it all... a few songs from each of the albums, the new material to be included on the album ORGANIC and the fresh, cooling rain for a few minutes in the middle of the set! Brother Bob thumped the gazillion watt thunderous basslines, Billy "Mismo Joe" Owens nailed the one drop drumlines and skittering high hats and Ras Alan pushed the output tubes of the vintage amps into "summer festival" territory. Ras Nethali joined in on congas and shakers on the closing numbers "Days Gone By" and "Jah Jah Lives", and the kids, teenagers, Grandmas, young folks, babies in carriages and the festival personel swung and swayed to the all original Appalachian Reggae.

Ras Alan was a featured artist on the Bele Chere live radio station, 880 the Revelution, and interviewed with Kim and Brian live in front of Pack Place. He spoke of the opportunities to meet and perform with his many reggae, Rasta and world musical influences, and how so many of them want to tour through southern Appalachia. "It's the vibes!" he said.

We noticed there were audience tapers in front of the sound booth for the Ras Alan & The Lions set. Can someone please send us a copy? We'd love to have it! Please email any inquiries to rasalan@appalachianreggae.com and thanks in advance for any leads...

Ras Alan Live on WSQL AM

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Radio Host Spencer Jones welcomed Ras Alan to his "Jonesin' with Masterpeice Jones" live radio show on WSQL 1240 AM, Brevard, NC on Monday nite, March 2, 2009. Ras Alan performed one of his current hits, "Organic", for his youngest daughter, whose birthday was celebrated that day. (She and her siblings helped write the song!) He also performed versions of "Beauty & Love" and "Days Gone By", songs from the new album, currently in pre-production. Thanks again Spencer, and to Kyle for setting up the visit. Where are the white squirrels in Brevard anyway?

RAS ALAN’S Annual “Giving Thanks” Show

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Greeneville, TN — Red Pepper Records and the Down Home are pleased to welcome Appalachian Reggae innovator Ras Alan and his annual “Giving Thanks” show on Saturday, November 8, 2008. Longtime musical partner Brother Bob Franklin will join Ras Alan on bass and vocals as they perform material from the upcoming ORGANIC album, Appalachian reggae hits and reggabilly favorites. Doors open at 6pm for dinner and the show is at 9pm. Tickets are $10. Bring your family, friends and neighbors!

Ras Alan and Brother Bob perform lively duo versions of the songs on ORGANIC. The title song, widely requested this festival season, is a family story, with front porch fiddlin’, grinnin’ children and garden waltzin’”¦”I forgot my shirt!” It’s about love, it’s about gardens, it’s about compost, it’s about the harvest, it’s about giving Thanks. Appalachian reggae dancehall at it’s best. You’ll be movin’ and groovin’- “Don’t panic”¦ Organic!”

“Beauty & Love”, a joyful piece from the upcoming album, is refreshing optimism during trying times. Ras Alan’s verses tell a story of daily observation, while smiles fill the room as fans sing the chorus, sharing “beauty, and love, and positivity”¦”. Here’s where the furniture gets pushed aside for room to dance! The guitar, bass-line and drinkbox set the mood for the “talking blues” (BEAT magazine-L.A.) style vocal delivery, until the sweet mountain harmonies blend with the crowd singing again around the renowned Down Home stage.

A native of Burke County in western North Carolina, Ras Alan began his music career in earnest in 1979, leaving his small music shop and coffee house in Boone, NC for a guitar building apprenticeship outside Nashville, TN. After playing several “newgrass” shows on the West Coast, he moved home to the Blue Ridge mountains and performed in several “new acoustic” groups. Ras Alan began studying the Rasta rhythms of reggae music and by the mid 1980’s was in his first reggae inspired outfit, I-Land, a blend of highland and island sounds.

Ras Alan’s first trip to Jamaica in 1985 was to experience Reggae Sunsplash firsthand and feel for himself the similarities to his own Appalachian heritage. He began to meet and perform with many musicians from the Caribbean and Africa, picking up de riddims along the way. He travelled in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, listening to indigenous music wherever it could be heard. After
releasing an album of world beat jazz music in 1990, Voice of The Turtle, he explored the beaches and mountains of Jamaica by bicycle, sleeping in a tent, cooking the local foods on a kerosene camp stove and recording music on a solar-powered tape recorder. He biked and camped the island of Antigua next. Then, by crewing on a 31’ sailboat, Ras Alan visited Guadalupe, Martinique, Dominica and St. Lucia, learning from the island locals during the day and recording French-speaking Soca radio stations at night.

The original reggabilly rastaman, Ras Alan began assembling The Lions, his live electric and studio band, in 1991. The following year, Red Pepper Records, Ras Alan’s own label, distributed his first Appalachian reggae CD, NATIVE. The albums STONE INNA HURRICANE, LETTER FROM APPALACHIA and FOLKLIFE- LIVE AT THE SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL followed, with a new cd, ORGANIC, due in 2009.

The Smithsonian Institution, Country Music Television, the Archives of
Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, PBS, the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide, National Public Radio stations and internet radio worldwide all feature Ras Alan and his music in their programming. Ras Alan shares his “One HeartBeat- Appalachia to Zimbabwe” program for children at schools and events across the region.

Sing, dance, smile and “Give Thanks!” with Ras Alan and Brother Bob at the Down Home, 300 West Main Street, Johnson City, Tennessee on Saturday night, November 8, 2008. For more info call the Down Home at 423-929-9822 or www.downhome.com, and check Ras Alan and his music at

www.appalachianreggae.com; www.cdbaby.com/all/rasalan;

www.myspace.com/rasalan

www.sonicbids.com/rasalan.

RAS ALAN AT DOWN HOME “1993-2008: 15 Years of Appalachian Reggae”

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Greeneville, TN Jan. 17, 2008- He celebrated Bob Marley’s TALKING BLUES reggae
release in Jamaica with Ziggy, Stephen, Julian and Rita Marley; he picked informal
gospel and swing tunes with American music icons Doc Watson and Jethro Burns; he
learned ancient tribal rhythms and melodies at the feet of African blues master Ali Farke
Toure. His original “reggabilly” songs and self-produced CDs have navigated the
Grammy@ process, enlivened the Archives of Appalachia and represent “Contemporary
Southern Appalachian Culture and Music” in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
DC. He’s been featured on Country Music Television, PBS and NPR stations nationwide.

He is a devoted father, architect, carpenter and organic gardener. He lives in the
mountains just hours from where he was born into a large, close-knit family and
continues to pick Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers tunes with his father and uncles at
various reunions and yearly gatherings. He plays a flat top guitar he built in 1980.

Red Pepper Records is pleased to present Ras Alan Childres and his “1993-2008:
15 Years of Appalachian Reggae” solo acoustic show Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the
Down Home, Johnson City, TN’s famed eclectic music room. Doors open at 6pm for
dinner and the show begins at 9pm. Several of Ras Alan’s CDs will be available for sale
at the performance.

“Regular songs about regular life”¦ and a desire to do better.” Ras Alan’s music
reflects a life of observing and learning, trying and failing, and trying again. He teaches
”Respect” in his “One HeartBeat- Appalachia to Zimbabwe” children’s programs, shares
intimate “everyman” daily struggles in his songs and shines a flashlight-ray of Hope into
the future and our place in it.

Ras Alan’s first “Appalachian Reggae” CD was released on his own label in the
Spring of 1993. NATIVE met critic’s favor by its’ original take on storytelling to the
pulsing reggae beat, rather than a mere copying of style or mimicry of a popular
Caribbean accent and song form. STONE INNA HURRICANE, a live album recorded on
the road during 1995-1996, was released on CD in 1997 and quickly sold out due to its’
going straight to radio in markets that “got” the stories, rhythm and message.

In 2002, the more “pop” music elements of LETTER FROM APPALACHIA found
Ras Alan’s greatest audience listening and dancing to his stories framed by thicker
production and studio artistry: simple and decorative at the same time.

The Smithsonian Institution and the research committees for the “Year of
Appalachia” found what they were looking for in Ras Alan’s music and narrative. He was
invited to perform 10 shows on the National Mall in Washington, DC for the 37th
Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the subsequent “Smithsonian to the Mountains Tour”,
working alongside the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, based in Bristol TN/VA.
Ras Alan’s 2006 CD FOLKLIFE gathers his honest live performances in Washington,
heard by thousands of the 1.5 million visitors and condenses the huge experience into an
hour long tincture of homestyle ingenuity and front porch celebration.

Ras Alan has recently performed in festivals and stage shows in Jamaica and the
United States with popular bands and creative musicians including The Avett Brothers,
Michael Franti and Spearhead, Steel Pulse, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Toubab Krewe,
Steep Canyon Rangers, Uncle Earl, the everybodyfields, The Waybacks, Keller Williams,
The Grascals, Rhonda Vincent, The Seldom Scene and many others. Currently Ras Alan
is “pleasantly involved” in preproduction of a studio album of new material.

2008 represents the 15th year of Ras Alan’s “Appalachian Reggae” and his original
reggabilly tunes will be featured alongside anecdotes, stories and instruments gathered
along his musical odyssey, weaving mountain cultural traditions with global rhythmic
inspiration.

Come join your friends and neighbors on Saturday, February 2, at 9pm for a glimpse
into a musical seeker’s life, a poet’s warehouse and a regular guy with an irregular beat.

The Down Home is located at 300 West Main Street in Johnson City, TN. Tickets are
$10 at the door. The phone number is 423-929-9822. For more info on Ras Alan and his
music, please check http://www.appalachianreggae.com,
http://www.myspace.com/rasalan, http://www.cdbaby.com/all/rasalan and
http://www.sonicbids.com/rasalan.

Ras Alan is currently booking through Red Pepper Records at 423-330-8834,
PO Box 33, Greeneville, TN, 37744 or rasalan@appalachianreggae.com

Give Thanks for another successful season!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

2007 saw Ras Alan share performances, festivals and reggabilly jump-ups in Jamaica, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia with Steel Pulse, The Avett Brothers, Michael Franti and Spearhead, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Toubab Krewe, The Grascals, The Waybacks, the Biscuit Burners, Donna the Buffalo, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, the everybodyfields, Steep Canyon Rangers, Uncle Earl, Peter Rowan, Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, Acoustic Syndicate, Seldom Scene, Keller Williams, the Corklickers, Tony Trishka and many others.

Of particular enjoyment was the "Appalachian reggae mini-set" during Bristol TN/VA's Rhythm and Roots Reunion's Midnight Superjam, hosted by banjo innovator Tony Trishka. Ras Alan was joined on stage by Mike Guggino (mandolin- Steep Canyon Rangers), James Nash (guitar- The Waybacks), Dom Flemons (harmonica and bones- Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Al Caldwell (11 string midi bass (!)- Vanessa Williams) and others for the late night festivities. Go deh!

I continue to Give Thanks to the many promoters, talent buyers, fans and friends that encourage and uplift local musicians and a little Appalachian reggabilly!

Ras Alan & The Lions to close out the 2007 Flatrock Music Festival

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Come join the merry festival goers at The Flatrock Music Festival, south of Asheville and just outside Flat Rock, NC, as Ras Alan & The Lions bring the Appalachian Reggae experience to the mainstage Sunday, September 30, 2007! Ras Alan, bassist-vocalist Dennis "Jah B" Berndt, drummer-vocalist Skye McLeod, percussionist "NeddyMon" Percival and guitarist-dub effector Evan "Professor" Ackerman will be bringin their full festival set to close out the 2007 version of Flatrock. Live versions of "Whitehouse", "Dreamer", "Beauty & Love", "Days Gone By" and "Organic!" will have the dancers dancin' and the thinkers thinkin! Do you remember Flatrock 2004, when Ras Alan & The Lions came on stage right after Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys? This time there's even more in store.... electric reggabilly? You bet!

Also appearing at Flatrock in 2007 are The Waybacks, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Barefoot Manner, the Subdudes, Randall Bramlett Band and many others.

For more info: http://www.flatrockmusicfestival.com/