The Village Café in Liguanea, St Andrew was packed and then some last Tuesday for Tuesday Nite Live, the weekly live music show produced by Mystic Urchin in association with Kingston Beer, the large crowd there primarily to see headliners, Rootz Underground.

Guitarist Omar Francis led a ‘pick-up version’ of the Free Willys at Red Bones blues cafe.
The band has been experiencing increasing success on the music scene, both in Jamaica and internationally, recently with their single Victims of the System.

Lead guitarist Charles Lazarus, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Jeffrey Moss Solomon, keyboardist Paul ‘Scoobie’ Smith, bassist Colin ‘Babylon Headache’ Young and drummer Leon Campbell initially took the stage, laying down some wicked bass, which underpinned some terrific rock riffs and an overall sound which was an intoxicating hybrid of rock and reggae called Africa to Mount Zion.

Their next number, Hammer, again an instrumental, had more of a reggae vibe, but with distinct rock undertones and once again it became clear that one of Rootz Underground’s many strengths lie in the way they work together to create a unified whole.

Farmin’ was next and finally the band’s front man, Stephen Newland – ‘Stevie G’ – made his appearance, to raucous cheers. As the flashes from innumerable digital cameras lit up the stage, Stevie G shook his head, loosening his locks and bounced up and down in place for a bit.

After a bit of patter, Newland said that they were going into a time machine, playing “. songs from the summer of 2008 – so if you see me getting crazy (as if he were ever anything but). doing some dance moves wha no buss yet.”
Riverstone followed, with Charles Lazarus making his fingers blur across his instrument’s fret board and Moss-Solomon providing back-up vocals, but with no dancing from the lead singer – yet.

Then he started moving with a start-stop motion, his upper body rolling, his dreadlocks flashing once or twice. The drummer wore a cowboy hat in camouflage colours and his head bopped as he played. Stevie G sang, still moving. He lost his army green jacket to reveal a yellow and green T-shirt. He sang, segueing into on Equal Rights. He danced.
People screamed and shouted.

Keyboardist Scoobie took lead vocal duties, doing an excellent job, Moss-Solomon and Newland providing back-up vocals, on Slumberland. Jeffrey Moss-Solomon did the same on a song he wrote with Andrew ‘Preggs’ Thompson about his ‘mountain hideaway in Irish Town (ladies, take note), called Waiting For You. With Newland, there are times you don’t actually have to understand a word he is singing – he has a charisma, an appeal which many would kill to have.

Victims of the System and Corners of My Mind, songs from their album Movements should have closed off their set, but of course, an encore was a given. Before the band left the stage however, Stevie G bounded almost as high as the roof and Lazarus and Moss-Solomon shared lead guitar duties in a swirling cornucopia of sound.
They disappeared, only for Young to reappear and ask, needlessly, “Who wants more?!”

The encore was a medley of ‘herb’ songs, commemorating Newland’s encounter with the Negril, Westmoreland police in which he sang I’d rather be an outlaw/Than bow to Babylon law. Jungle was the final song of the night, the band closing with a thundering, towering crescendo which evoked emotions beyond mere enjoyment.

Free Willys

They seem to play together more for fun than anything else.
The Free Willys played at Redbones the Blues Cafe in Kingston 10 last Friday. The band does not have a set line-up of members, the only constant being guitarist Omar Francis, who tends to organise different musicians around him based on factors such as availability. To kick off their performance, Francis said: “Good night, we’re The Free Willys for the time being,” an enormous grin splitting his face. With him on the Redbones stage were Kieran Murray on bass, Donald Waugh on drums and Jerome Tulloch on the keyboard.

They kicked things off with a cover of Gregory Isaacs’ Night Nurse but, in true Free Willys style, the result was something Isaacs would probably never have imagined.
Murray kept his eyes closed as he played, his upper body rocking from side to side and his head occasionally swivelling while his fingers plucked out the required bass line.

Francis went on an extended solo as did Tulloch. What was interesting to see was a different Donald Waugh. Usually he is the lead guitarist and a singer with the band Airplai (along with Murray and Tulloch), where he routinely does excellent things. What was fun to see here was the man in a very different role. He was a lot more animated, more energetic than he usually is.
He looked like he was really having fun.

At times throughout various songs, Francis would yell ‘Dubwise!’ and pure instrumentals, often with a hint of a one-drop rhythm, and various improvisations, reinventions and variations would become the order of the night.

This was the case on Bjork’s There Is More To Life Than This, Eek-A-Mouse’s A Wha Do Dem, Edu Lobo’s Upa Neguinho (a Brazilian song, delivered in its original Portuguese by Francis), John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and others before they took a break.

Towards the end of their break, two guest artistes appeared: drummer Craig ‘Phlee’ Lee and singer, the temporarily disabled Petrus Chang.
Third World’s 96 Degrees In The Shade was their first song, Petrus keeping his voice relatively soft, as did Phlee with the beat he elicited from his instrument. Things took a sad turn with Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, which was dedicated to a friend who passed away recently, and whose grandmother died shortly before her.

The Free Willys returned. For the entire night, Francis had punctuated his set with off-the-wall comments such as, ‘Free your mind and your ass will follow, that’s what George Clinton says,’ ‘We’re having fun up here and we hope you are too, if you’re not, well….’ and ‘Fortune favours the brave and the very stupid,’ much to the amusement and occasional bemusement of the crowd.

Their tour-de-force came with a medley of Radiohead’s OK Computer, Shai’s If I Ever Fall In Love Again, Nice Up De Dance and Marley’s Lively Up Yourself, (a ‘made up on the fly’ improvisation), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s My Favourite Things, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze, Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth and Toots & The Maytals’ 54-46 (That’s My Number).

They departed from a reggae beat to a high tempo rock one within heartbeats on OK Computer and at the end of their medley they seemed to have been playing forever, but not long enough. “I think that was our last one” said Francis, while a voice from the bar yelled ‘Encore!’ After a brief consultation with his band, Francis said “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, buy us a drink and we’ll play one more.”

‘Done!’ was the instantaneous response.