Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008 • Reggae sounds pump up Acoustic Café

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Susanville singer/songwriter Brian Taylor delivered 90 minutes of mostly original music at Lassen Community College’s Acoustic Café series on Friday, Dec. 19.

Local drummer Mike Rivas provided rhythmic support for Taylor, who also performs under the band name, Luther Red.

Taylor said the unique name of his one-man band is a tribute to a Vietnam veteran named Luther Red who had saved the life of a friends’ father during the Vietnam conflict. Out of a company of 30 men, only four came out alive, one being Luther Red.

“I wanted to pay tribute a guy who has never received recognition for all he had sacrificed,” said Taylor.

Taylor said he and Rivas started playing together during an open mic session at the Lassen County Arts Council, after a Words and Music performance by local musician Tim Keesey.

Taylor’s music is heavily influenced by reggae music from Jamaica — 4/4 music with an unusual drumbeat on the third beat instead of the standard rock and roll backbeat on 2 and 4.

Taylor’s style has frequently been compared to Jack Johnson, Sublime, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Franti of Spearhead — current artists who flaunt their reggae roots.

Taylor has been playing acoustic guitar for 12 years. He recently released his second studio album entitled, “We’ve Got the Fire.”

Taylor said the album, whose artwork was inspired by his recent travels with his wife to conduct biology conservation work in Namibia, has a rich acoustic feel to it.

Taylor brought that acoustic feel to the show. Despite complaining of having a bit of sore throat, Taylor’s vocals were strong and clear.

The subject matter of his songs focused on simple things from the girl next door to painting a deck to preserve it. One of the show’s most poignant moments came during a song Taylor wrote that lamented the passing of his grandmother before his first child was born. He even played a cover of James Taylor’s hit, “Fire and Rain.”

Rivas, a consummate drummer who builds his own instruments, provided a perfect beat for the evening’s music.

Taylor delighted the audience by giving away a Luther Red T-shirt and a copy of his latest CD.

After the show, Taylor said he’s largely a self-taught guitarist, and when he writes a song he just looks for sounds that seem to fit. In the process, he’s devised a number of unusual chord voices and fingerings, and his chord progressions slide up and down the guitar neck with ease.

As strange as it might seem to some, Jamaican music has been a mainstay in American popular music since the 1920s.

Harry Belafonte and others brought Calypso music to popularity during the folk boom of the 1950s and early 1960s, and in 1964 Jamaican singer Millie Small reworked a 1956 rhythm and blues number entitled “My Boy Lollipop” and took it into the top-10 for what is considered the first international ska hit.

Of course, Bob Marley and the Wailers brought wide popularity to reggae. Eric Clapton covered Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” and made it an impressive international hit.

English rockers the Police built most of their career on that good old reggae beat. And a whole new musical form, called World Beat, also evolved from reggae, replacing the drum beat on three with a standard rock backbeat.

The influence of reggae continues today, and country star Kenny Chesney recently scored a big hit with the steel-drum laced, “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” — backed by the Wailers themselves. Country reggae. What will they think of next?