The Wailers' Koolant Brown: Right Here Right Now

08/30/12 • 16 min

The Culture Agent: Sander Roscoe Wolff, columnist for LBPost.com

Tomorrow, Saturday, September 1st, the Queen Mary is hosting the Shoreline Jam, an all-day all ages Reggae festival starting at 11 AM and ending just before midnight. The organizers did a great job of combining local, national, and international talent, including the masters of Jamaican dub, Black Uhuru, and the band whose name is perhaps most synonymous with Reggae, The Wailers. The Wailers are best known for backing Bob Marley and, since his death, they've continued to work as both an entity unto themselves, and also with a number of other artists. Even when Marley was alive, the band's name sake, Neville Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), and Peter Tosh both left the band, and Aston Barrett and his brother, Carlton, became the backbone of the group. Today, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett is the last remaining musician from the 70s era group, but he's surrounded himself with a group of talented young turks. Front and center is Koolant Brown, whose career as a solo artist was doing quite well when he got the call to audition for the job of singing for The Wailers. In this interview, Koolant speaks about his childhood, the thrill of meeting many of his musical heroes, the crazy pace of the current tour, and the significance of sharing Marley's genius with a multi-generational audience. Our conversation lasts about 16 minutes. For more information about Koolant, visit http://koolantmusic.com/. For more information about The Wailers, visit http://wailers.com/ For tickets, and information about the festival, visit http://www.shorelinejamqm.com/

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