Toots and the Maytals – Jamaica Reggae at its Finest

Toots and the Maytals are a band I heard on No Shoes Radio. Their song “Pressure Drop” hooked me and have been exploring their music for awhile now. Their reggae music was born in Kingston, Jamaica and has since spread the world over.

Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are considered legends of ska and reggae music. Their sound is a unique, original combination of gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rock. Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the leader of the group, was born in May Pen in the Parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. He was the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir, but moved to Kingston in 1961 at the tender age of sixteen.

Here are a couple of my favorite songs to get you warmed up–Pressure Drop and Monkey Man.

Toots and the Maytals – Pressure Drop

Toots and the Maytals – Monkey Man

The band won the 2005 Grammy award for best reggae album True Love, an album consisting of re-recorded versions of their classics alongside popular and legendary musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards, as well as popular artists today such as No Doubt, Ben Harper, The Roots, and Shaggy.

Toots and the Maytals remains a relevant influence on today’s global music scene with artists from Amy Winehouse to Sublime re-recording classic tracks. Toots received another Grammy nomination for his 2008 release “Light Your Light. In recent years Toots has toured with The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Los Lonely Boys.

Let us know is you are big Toots fans. Hit us up on Instagram at @CaribbeanCastaways and let us know what your favorite songs are.

For more reggae and island music, you can see a few other bands and songs here.

Cheers,
RumShopRyan