Saturday Sept 12
Ras Alan
at White Horse Black Mountain
8pm
"DOC WATSON meets BOB MARLEY at the CARTER FAMILY picnic, with THE ABYSSINIANS and NORMAN BLAKE tradin' recipes with BURNIN' SPEAR, THE ITALS and JOHNNY CASH."
Ras Alan's blend of traditional mountain music, original lyrics, and reggae heartbeat is fun, emotional, and socially responsible. Influenced by classic reggae, bluegrass, old time, Southern 
gospel, jazz, African drumming, and a respectful portion of Rastafari spirituality, Ras Alan's music is full of life, and the reggae rhythm is extremely danceable. Establishing the term "Reggabilly" in 1991, Ras Alan's songs are true stories inspired locally and applicable worldwide, rooted in Southern Appalachian tradition and consciously moving forward!
gospel, jazz, African drumming, and a respectful portion of Rastafari spirituality, Ras Alan's music is full of life, and the reggae rhythm is extremely danceable. Establishing the term "Reggabilly" in 1991, Ras Alan's songs are true stories inspired locally and applicable worldwide, rooted in Southern Appalachian tradition and consciously moving forward! 2009 represents the 16th year of Ras Alan’s “Appalachian Reggae” and his originalreggabilly tunes will be featured alongside anecdotes, stories and instruments gathered along his musical odyssey, weaving mountain cultural traditions with global rhythmic inspiration.
Ras Alan was a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, for the “Year of Appalachia”, recording 10 shows on the National Mall in Washington DC, some of which is included in his new live release, Folklife. Ras Alan performed in the “Smithsonian to the Mountains” tour and was greatly honored to appear at the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, where A.P. and Sara Carter’s daughter, Janette, kept Southern Appalachian music traditions alive. Ras Alan appeared in Blue Ridge Country Magazine, photographed 
on the Pickin’ Porch at the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance for a Bristol radio show.
on the Pickin’ Porch at the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance for a Bristol radio show. Ras Alan’s three previous albums are housed in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Archives and in East Tennessee State University’s Archives of Appalachia. These albums are Letter from Appalachia (2002), Stone Inna Hurricane (1997), and Native (1993). Letter from Appalachia and Folklife were each considered by the Grammy® committees in both the reggae and contemporary folk categories. Ras Alan appears on several regional and international CD compilations.
Ras Alan has picked and performed with music greats from many genres. He picked with Doc Watson and played African melodies with Malian master musician, Ali Farke Toure. He jammed with Yonder Mountain String Band; traded mandolin duet licks with Jethro Burns; and drummed with Nigerian Babetunde Olatunji. Ras Alan, a member and performer for Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide, shared the stage with Burning Spear and The Wailers.
"I grew up listening to a lot of AM radio, like a lot of the people in the 60s and 70s, and I heard stuff like Paul Simon and Mungo Jerry. Around that time I heard Eric Clapton’s version of “I Shot the Sheriff” and I really liked the rhythm part of it. Then a friend of my cousin told me that if I liked that, I should hear the guy that wrote the song. And I remember clearly to this day him dropping the needle on that vinyl record of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Live at the Lyceum. It changed my life. I grew up a Southern Baptist and this music had all the women singing the gospel harmonies and the spiritual feeling to it, and then you add the guitar and electric bass and the drums. I was smitten. It was cool, too, because it was a little outside the norm for a young radical forming his opinion of the world."
Come join your friends and neighbors for a glimpse into a musical seeker’s life, a poet’s warehouse and a regular guy with an irregular beat.
