California Roots: The Carolina Sessions 2015

California Roots is proud to announce the full lineup for its third annual event this fall with a brand new location to boot. 311, SOJA and Steel Pulse will be joined by other hard hitting artists on Saturday, October 3, 2015 at the beautiful Myrtle Beach Pavilion located just steps away from hotels, the beach, […]

Rootfire At The Beach 2015

A distinct spark of excitement is in the air as the inaugural Rootfire At The Beach summer music festival in Avila Beach Resort in Avila Beach, California closes in on its day of good music and good vibes. The musical lineup presented by California Roots Festival and Otter Productions, Inc. will contain all the ingredients […]

Jah9 to embark on U.S. East Coast tour

The roots reggae genre continues to evolve every day from contributions of artists all over the globe, but especially out of the movement's epicenter of Kingston, Jamaica. Although most Jah-loving musicians are pushing for equality and tranquility, the message is shrouded by the definite lack of female voices among the masses. Female rootsy protagonists do […]

Boston to host 1st annual AfrikCan Festival

Without African influence, reggae would have never come to be in the Jamaican 1960s Jamaica, the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, Latin America, the UK and the continental United States – all are associated in the origin and evolution of reggae music as the world knows it. There is another integral place of reggae ancestry, however, that […]

Interview: Dub Inc.

Based out of France, Dub Inc. fuses classic roots reggae with dub, dancehall, ska, hip-hop and African influences. We sat down with drummer and founding member Grégory “Zigo” Mavridorakis and had a great conversation talking about the early years, their loyal fans, and keys to success. Where are you guys based out of? We’re from […]

New single “Powerful Love” from The Ambassador

As a precursor to the much anticipated full-length album release “Cali Love”, The Ambassador is releasing a single titled “Powerful Love,” which drops  July 7, 2015. The track features vocals from GRAMMY nominated artist Pato Banton. The Ambassador is a gifted singer/songwriter, producer and composer that focuses on pairing top notch musicianship and quality songwriting […]

Bay Area Vibez Festival 2015

Oakland, California has always been at the progressive end of the spectrum. Being one of the busiest port cities in the west coast, Oakland will become the epicenter of reggae, hip-hop and EDM come September 2015 when Tourn Entertainment will host the inaugural Bay Area Vibez, a two-day, three-stage festival in the heart of Oakland’s […]

Tribal Seeds 2015 Summer Smoke Out tour

Awarded the “Best World Music” title at the San Diego Music Awards in 2008 as well as debuting their latest album last year Representing at the number 1 spot on the Billboard Reggae Charts, Tribal Seeds will kick off a 21-city tour starting on August 21, 2015 in “Sin City” Las Vegas, Nevada. The four […]

Fortunate Youth & Arise Roots at the Belly Up

Two bands from Los Angeles, California came down to Solana Beach in San Diego to perform some beloved reggae music on Thursday, June 11th. Arise Roots and Fortunate Youth are known for their modern reggae music, which usually includes special messages. A great crowd showed up for both bands as Top Shelf Reggae indeed saw […]

Artist spotlight: 9 Mile Roots

Scheduled to perform at Philly’s premiere reggae festival which will include Damian and Stephen Marley, Morgan Heritage and Tarrus Riley, the eight-piece group 9 Mile Roots is making new waves for the east coast reggae scene. Hailing from Baltimore, MD the group consists of members Jay Randell (lead vocals/trumpet), Dave Muse (drums), Josh Behun (bass), […]

Inna Vision’s “When We Forward” summer tour

Widely promoted as Maui’s first original roots reggae band, the group that call themselves Inna Vision is set to embark on their summertime west coast tour titled “When We Forward,” covering twelve U.S. cities with The Big Island natives, The Steppas. The Aloha State crew will kick off the tour July 15th, 2015 in Southern […]

Stick Figure’s remix of “Smokin’ Love”

Like the Fantastic Five of reggae music, the great super powers come together to create something that’s truly out of this world. …the great super powers come together to create something that’s truly out of this world. The initial version of Smokin’ Love which featured Collie Buddz was released June 3rd, 2014 and mended two […]

Cali Vibes Clothing “Support Local Reggae”

Out of Los Angeles, California comes a man with a mission. Not only is Vince Pena’s clothing line, Cali Vibes Clothing, what he considers his very own band, with each design like that of a song, but he appears to be a humble business man with a main goal – to support the local reggae […]

E.N Young and Imperial Sound show review

On Wednesday May 20, E.N Young of Tribal Seeds and his new band, Imperial Sound, played at Over the Border in Chula Vista, California. A local band, Revival, opened the night for the infamous melodica player and singer. Revival is an eight piece band from Chula Vista, although some members may have been missing that […]

California Roots: six years of success

Five years ago, in 2010, a small festival took place in Monterey, California over Memorial Day Weekend where bands played to an audience of friends, family, other musicians and local fans. Today, after tens of thousands of festival-goers all over the country flocked to Monterey's fairgrounds and enjoyed yet another three-day musical extravaganza, it's hard […]