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Toots And The Maytals - Unplugged on Strawberry Hill

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Toots And The Maytals - Unplugged on Strawberry Hill

Toots And The Maytals - Unplugged on Strawberry Hill

By Erik Magni on Saturday, September 1, 2012 - Comment

Toots Hibbert boards the acoustic train.

Sampler

Toots and the Maytals - Unplugged On Strawberry Hill Over the past months Tarrus Riley and Clinton Fearon have put out acoustic albums and Richie Spice has announced he has one on the stove as well.

Now they’re joined by iconic gritty soulful reggae singer Toots Hibbert. His first ever acoustic set 'Unplugged on Strawberry Hill' dropped on August 6 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Jamaican Independence Day.

The Grammy award-winning Toots Hibbert has recorded some immortal reggae, ska and rocksteady tunes, and some of these are now re-done with sparse laid-back rock arrangements using only acoustic guitar, bass, percussion and vocals – Toots Hibbert on lead and his two daughters on back-up.

'Unplugged on Strawberry Hill' was recorded at Chris Blackwell’s sun kissed property in Jamaica and includes twelve tracks mostly covering the 60’s and 70’s with gems such as 54-46 and Funky Kingston as well as Pressure Drop and Sweet and Dandy, also included on the classic soundtrack to the cult motion picture 'The Harder They Come'.

Toots’ bruised singing is as memorable as ever and is luckily enough given plenty of space to present these songs in a fresh context.

The album also includes the bonus DVD documentary 'Reggae Got Soul', containing rare live footage from Toots’ performance at Rockpalast in 1981, interviews with other artists and liner notes contributed by modeling singer Grace Jones.

Below you can check an edited version of the documentary featuring Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Willie Nelson along with Toots himself.

Tags: Toots and the Maytals