Anthony B

It seems that the members of the Rastafarian movement have a stronghold on reggae music. Trelawny Parish, Jamaica born Keith Blair adopted the stage name Anthony B and has been drawing upon some of his musical idols like Peter Tosh and Bob Marley to make music of his own. He is lucky enough to tour the world to share the music that he is so passionate about.

His live shows seem to be a heck of a lot of fun. With a band consisting of a keyboardist, guitarist, drummer, and bassist and back up vocals backing him, he enjoys his time on the stage. The stage is set so that there is a Jamaican flag and a lion behind him, completely lit up. He clearly loves performing, and loves to get the crowd involved, things like waving their arms or clapping to the beat. That is just the beginning of the interaction that he tries to maintain with the crowd. Between songs he likes to speak to them, and immediately gets into the next song. Everyone in the crowd loves his stage presence, and you can tell by the ear-deafening cheer that they give him at the end of EVERY song.

Anthony B counts among reggae's greatest artists, and he's a fantastic performer too. For his 2017 concert at the New Parish it looked like he was backed by local-ish musicians. This was a delightful show with a relatively mature audience that was fully engaged and dancing. The openers were awesome too, particularly Mr. Mego, a Bay Area reggae musician and talented song writer.