Live Shots: Toots and the Maytals
Toots and the Maytals were jumping last night - literally. The Jamaican singer punctuated most of his upbeat choruses by jumping up and down in beat to the music, taking his audience along with him.
Toots has been performing since the early 1960s, and he's seen (if not spawned) all the various styles of reggae music - ska, dancehall, roots. Toots, however, has always been most influenced by gospel and American soul music (the cross pollination was inevitable). That influence is subtle on some tunes, but on others it takes front stage center, as when Toots broke out in a chorus of "Amen" during a vamp. The set list included "True Love," "Country Roads Take Me Home," (Toots' version is "Take me home / where I belong / west Jamaica / Take me home) and an encore of "Love Gonna Walk Out on Me."
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