roots

One of the first reggae artists to embrace dancehall, Sammy Dread (born: Stewart Farquaharson) has continued to take a hard-edged, roughhouse, approach to reggae. While he scored minor solo hits with "Talk It Over" and "Trying To Conquer Natty Dreadlocks", and an album, Stereophonic, recorded with Philip Frazer in 1980, Dread's best work has been produced in collaboration with such reggae artists as Sugar Minnot, Black Roots and InI Oneness. The title track of his 1995 album, Road Block, was covered by London-born and United States-based vocalist/rapper, Shinehead.

The Lees are a family band: dad - Steve; mum - Tracey; and their 4 kids - Raechel (19), Jarod (18), Faith (15) and Savannah (12). The Lees began around 11 years ago. After playing in many different bands and finding no satisfaction, Steve Lee decided that the only way to go about it was to use what already had - a wife and four kids. Steve and his wife Tracey were sitting at a Dead Ringer Band Concert one night in their hometown of Broken Hill when he turned to Tracey and said, "that looks like a good way to make a living… Wanna do that?".

The Wailing Souls started out as a three-piece - Winston 'Pipe' Matthews, George 'Buddy' Haye and Lloyd 'Bread' McDonald - known as the Renegades in 1965. In the late 60s, Matthews and McDonald recorded on Coxsone Dodd's famous Studio One label with singers Oswald Downes and Norman Davis as both The Classics and The Wailing Souls. The Wailing Souls then moved to Bob Marley's Tuff Gong label in the early 1970s and became known as Pipe and The Pipes to avoid confusion with The Wailers.

Groundation is a Fusion-Reggae band based in Sonoma County, California. It was established in 1998 by Harrison Stafford, Ryan Newman and Marcus Urani upon their meeting at the Jazz program at Sonoma State University. Groundation's music incorporates the lyrical struggle of Roots Reggae, the progressive musicianship of Funk/Jazz fusion, and other-worldly transcendental Dub. The 9-piece band creates an altogether new Reggae sound, featuring swirling horns, stout poly-rhythmics, and soulful harmony vocals.