LIGHT YOUR LIGHT - TOOTS & THE MAYTALS
Big-voiced reggae pioneer Toots Hibbert uses “Light Your Light” to powwow with friends, revisit some road staples and pay respect to fellow Jamaican musical giants (Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, the Skatalites). The first two tracks are very much vehicles for Derek Trucks (”Johnny Coolman”) and Bonnie Raitt (”Premature”), and it’s not until a cover of Otis Redding’s “Pain in My Heart” that you fall into the funky Kingston groove. However Tootsified, Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman” suffers from oversaturation of the late singer’s legend — even if Hibbert is better-suited than most to pull off such a bold cover. Sweetened by classic roots-reggae female backing vocals, the prayer-like “I See the Light” and the nostalgic “Do You Remember” — both barely midtempo — and a take on the Skatalites classic “Guns of Navarone” are the unlikely highlights from this inconsistent outing.
