On The River

Reggae at Benbow, plus picnics and the Humboldt Folklife Festival

(July 17, 2008) With Mark Shikuma

If not for a bit of trouble along the way, 2008 would have marked the 25th anniversary of the quintessential SoHum music festival Reggae on the River. To avoid enflaming the ire of non-irie Reggae fundamentalists (and we’re not talking about the Rastafarian kind), we’ll skip the history of “the troubles.” Suffice to say, folks at the Mateel are not calling this the Silver Anniversary.

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They explain, “Although a much different event from the Reggae On The River festivals of recent memory, this community celebration and keep-the-name-alive-forever fundraiser will continue the tradition of great reggae music on the banks of the Eel River.”

How is it different? For starters, it’s a one-day festival on July 19, which places it on the third weekend in July instead of the first weekend of August. There are a few other differences, but we’ll get to those after we look at the music.

Gates open at Benbow Lake State Recreation Area at 11 a.m. and first on the agenda is an old Reggae tradition, an opening ceremony with a few words from Kenneste elder Fred “Coyote” Downey, whose people, also known as the Wailaki, lived on the land along the Eel before the coming of the White Man. Expect Arcata’s massive Afrobeat band AfroMassive to get things rolling when they hit the stage around 11:30 to thrown down Fela-inspired grooves.

Just before 1 p.m. the “conscious dancehall” portion of the program commences with Sister I-Live, whose claim to fame is the fact that she’s the late Peter Tosh’s niece. At 2:10 Kingston-born Stevie Culture takes over with backing by The Demolition Squad, an amalgam of Humboldt and Jamaican musicians. At 3:30 it’s more dancehall from Warrior King, who was here for RotR in 2004 and 2006.

Then at 5, there’s a shift to roots reggae with Katchafire from New Zealand, an indigenous Maori band who played at the Mateel earlier this year. Culture is a classic roots vocal trio with a long history at Reggae, although this time will be different. Joseph Hill, the band’s lead singer and chief songwriter passed away in August of 2006. His son, Kenyatta Hill, has taken over lead, carrying the torch forward. Closing the show, starting at around 8:30, The Wailing Souls, a veteran Jamaican vocal combo who have been recording since the mid-’70s. From the ’90s until recently, the band was down to a core duo — Winston “Pipe” Matthews and Lloyd “Bread” McDonald — but recently original members Rudolph “Garth” Dennis and George “Buddy” Haye rejoined bringing the quartet back to full force.

Benbow Lake State Recreation Area has a curfew, so the show ends relatively early. They allow some overnight camping near the festival, but it’s almost all sold out, so you’ll have to camp elsewhere or drive home after. Just like the old Reggae on the River they’ll have vendors galore, 50 of them, and a kid zone. Unlike the old Reggae, you’re not going to be able to wander around drinking beer or other adult beverages. Benbow authorities insist on a fenced-off restricted adults-only area affectionately referred to by the Mateel folks as a “beer garden.” Smoking? You might want to take that down by the river away from the authorities. The party will be different, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

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