Coming up in just ONE month

...the 4th Annual RiseUp Vermont Roots & Culture Fest
Actually, it's in 5 weekends (including this one), mark your calendars NOW!

COST of TICKETS (very reasonable)
$50 for Saturday only
$60 for the WHOLE weekend if purchased by 5/31 (THIS Sunday)
$75 for the whole weekend if purchased in June (starting next Monday).

AVAILABLE via www.FlynnTix.com or 802-86-FLYNN (802-863-5966), fees may apply

LOCATION:
Greens Road, Washington, VT
(...on 1500 acres of Vermont National Forest)

DRIVE TIME: just over 3 hours (it's an hour closer to Boston than Burlington)

DIRECTIONS: from anywhere, on the RiseUp website.
From Boston, we recommend: 93N to 89N to 91N;
Exit 16 for VT-25 toward US-5/Bradford;
Turn Left onto VT-25 /Waits River Road (signs for Barre);
Go 13 mi and take slight Left off 25 onto East Orange Road;
Keep left on E. Orange Rd. for 3 mi;
Turn Left onto Greens Road.

LINEUP:
Friday, final act: Anthony B
Saturday, final acts: Don Carlos and his band, preceded by Everton Blender & Queen Omega, both backed by Dub Station

ALSO APPEARING:
Youssoupha Sadibe (from Senegal); Virgin Islands artists: Jahcob Seed, the Reggae Bubblers, Batch, Ras Attitude, Mada Nile and the Zioneers; Brooklyn's own Jah Dan & Noble Society; as well as Black Rebels, JAH-N-I, House of Rastafari. There will also be late-night conscious dancehall sessions with the likes of Itation Sound, RiseUp Sound, and Satta Sound will all be spinning. More details soon come...

LODGING:
Camping & RV sites
Hotels listed on the RiseUp site

FOOD & VENDORS:
Local Raw & Cooked Organic Foods & Vital Juices
(interested vendors may inquire via the site)
...please do NOT bring any glass, there will only be campfires in designated areas, and cell phone reception is low to nill

FOR THE CHILDREN:
...a staffed RiseUp Youth Tent, complete with story-telling, art projects, nature walks, costume design, a RiseUp youth parade, and much more...

CAUSE BENEFITED:
This is a not-for-profit Festival. Proceeds will go towards humanitarian projects, including the building of a children's school & community center in Senegal, West Africa.

A FEW WORDS FROM THE ORGANIZERS:
Rise Up Vermont is very pleased, blessed, and humbled to bring to you all, the most harmonious and cultural reggae music of our modern day...with all of the hottest and most talented new and old-school foundation reggae artists from Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and the States. This Festival will be a massive conglomeration of our most crucial roots family. Rise Up Vermont would love for this event to be the opportunity for all conscious people from across the nation & around the globe to arrive into the Green Mountains and feel truly blessed to be here. Central Vermont, in particular, is making a name for itself for ever-developing cultural scene, and this roots & culture event will take this vision many steps forward. We will be presenting to all a very strong cultural, natural, and safe vibe around the show's site. Rise Up aims to offer all natural foods, clothing and enterprises from Vermont and beyond. There will be a fair amount of vendors on site to cater to everyone’s needs and we hope to give plenty of opportunities for folks to spend time browsing, learning, and sharing with each other in between sets.

Check out the RiseUp Festival's website: www.RiseUpVT.com

Boston Reggae back on the map

Without telling his life story, Phoenix author Chris Faraone stumbled on a node of roots & culture when he came out to see KRucial Promotion's hosting of Reggae photo-historian Peter Simon (author of Reggae Bloodlines & Reggae International) last fall. Simon (Carly's brother) was doing a multimedia presentation on his career and his latest book: Reggae Scrapbook (co-authored with Roger Steffens). Event organizer Kyle Russell responded to what seemed to be a semi-flip review (the next day) of the showing, and a conversation began that was to take Faraone far and wide in the scene, as he vowed to present it properly to his readers in what became a cover story of the generally rock-oriented entertainment weekly.

The headline of Faraone's Reggae Revival claims "Booming in Boston's underground, Caribbean riddims are about to burst back into the mainstream." His survey could be an excellent lead-in to a book on the subject, as even he admitted in a phone call later, he couldn't possibly cover all the nooks and crannies he'd discovered in his research.

There were things I knew, like that this or that club had closed due to violence. But in an interesting response I got from a friend by email: "I feel a lot safer at a Reggae show than a lot of the rock shows I've been to. I've had enough brushes with serious injury standing a little too close to where a mosh pit broke out, or from people rushing the stage." Even last week, a venue turned away my overtures to bring Reggae through their doors. It seems when Reggae patrons get out of hand, the whole program is shut down, but when Rock fans get out of order, it's just par for the course (and never seems to close down any clubs).

Reggae's had a tough way to go, which is why it's been bubbling increasingly underground. But Faraone notes that some recent big turnouts seem to suggest a growing audience of Reggae listeners. Historically, Boston also seems to run deep with the music, and may have been instrumental in rooting the Island sound in the U.S. For example, Boston's WERS Rockers 88.9FM radio show was one of the first college Reggae shows in the nation - set up in 1979 - and may be the only one from them that's continuously running through today.

Names are dropped and statistics cited. It's notable that Boston has as many (or more) Radio-hours of Reggae per week than New York, who boasts a Caribbean population 13 times larger than that of its northern cousin. The graphic featured on the Phoenix cover (by K. Bonami, I believe) reads Hub Dub, a nod to Boston's nickname, and the almost synonymous word for Reggae jams. Let us hope Faraone's prediction - which his words seem to substantiate - is accurate, and along with the Artists and events we host in New England, make the East Coast an increasing magnet and pathfinder for Reggae in the years to come.

Read the entire Phoenix article Online

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Call: 617-771-5119 for more info, or to follow up on any or all of the contents of this Newsletter

About this Newsletter

In addition to it's efforts to give back to the Motherland (Africa) - the RiseUp Vermont Festival has a mission - to present perhaps the highest quality blend of conscious Reggae on the East Coast. One of this year's headliners: Everton Blender also appeared at the last, great Vermont Reggae Fest from days of yore (in 2000). with his (then, and again) backing band Dub Station.

...our movement is bi-coastal

As the RiseUp Festival is a Roots & Culture event, so too is the tour pictured above, which passed through California in March, and will be making its rounds again in July. The Spring tour featured singjay Winstrong (currently in NorCal) with backing band Dub Station, and this summer's run will feature Michael Fabulous (of Jamaica). The glue for both events is up-and-coming Dominican American roots artist Roberto Gell and his primary backing band I-Trinity.

Spotlight on Roberto Gell

Singing occasionally in Spanish, this roots artist is not afraid to cross boundaries in expressing his pan-Latin/Afro-American experience. His new EP "MIDNIGHT RAVERS" features 5 songs, including Jamaica (which draws from the Marvin Gaye classic); Can't Tell ('bout we "can't tell what's gonna happen next"); What We Need (...is Love); Viviendo en Babylon (living in Babylon); and Work Hard (how to survive by whatever means necessary).

Roberto Gell's CD now available on iTunes

For those who've watched this artist rise above cult status - straddling both coasts as he brings forth his brand of Dominican American cultural Reggae - it's exciting to announce that Roberto Gell's EP Midnight Ravers is NOW AVAILABLE ON iTUNES. Listen to what he's dealing with!

iTunes link for Roberto Gell's CD

...also available on iTunes

Abijah's 19-song "Moving 2 the Top" CD features a broad range of talent, from his own productions to those of others (including a remake of "Sun is Shining," produced in England). Beenie Man is featured on a duet remake of "Revelation," there's something for everyone!

Abijah on iTunes

Various Dub Station titles

Dub Station "Forward Ever" compilation (pictured above), still a flagship of the band's studio work, featuring Sonbeam, I-Tal Fire, Jem-i, Tweet'a Bird, Dia, and Elihu (aka Courtney Morris).

Dub Station's self-titled, first album, released over 10 years ago, with Skiffy, Mr. B, Paul Wayne, and Shaka Black.

Dub Station & Sonbeam - this outstanding singjay (about to be signed to Studio One when Coxone Dodd died) was a superstar here in Boston, and is now working on his next album, to come out in 2010.

Dub Station & Tom O'Brien - this artist was front man for Dub Station in recent years. Although a key part of the group's Bob Marley Tributes, he has many cogent originals and voice that's truly akin to Bob's.

Dub Station & Shaka Black - this powerhouse was a legend in Boston, appeared at several Vermont Reggae Festivals, and toured across the US. This album features a lot of his best live material with the band, and some studio captures of his soulful talent.

KRucial Reggae news

The relaunch of our web site www.Reggae4i.com coincided with the Roots & Culture tour of just a few months ago. We've simplified but modernized the look. Users can sign in and get free MP3's, so give it a visit!

We're in active search of partners to partake in our worldwide promotional strategies. If interested, please contact us. As mentioned above, our global emailing list tops 10,000 names and our website (above) is visited by upwards of 4,000 viewers monthly. We'll soon be announcing the official digital release of Winstrong's "Eye of the Storm" CD, upcoming tours, the potential new venue for our semi-weekly Reggae series (previously hosted at Bill's Bar), and our long-anticipated European outreach.

We'd love to hear from you - send us your friends' email addresses - give us ideas of venues & projects we can connect with. We've done Artist Spotlights, Festival Alerts, Contests, plenty of things in support of the global Reggae community. How can work with YOU to get the good word out!?




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Visit the KRucial Reggae Home Site www.Reggae4i.com