Matisyahu like teflon, no shtick

Sweetalk had the pleasure of visiting with Matisyahu and Josh Werner at one of their recent winter shows.  It’s always good to meet up with friends over the chaos of holiday cheer, but it’s made all the sweeter when the catching up comes before and after a ripping set of dub dripping beat bombs and spiritual accompaniment. 

Sweettalk has been a fan of Matis for sometime and it’s reassuring that music has evolved to the extent that a Hasidic Jew reggae rapper is not simply viewed as a novelty act or a one hit wonder.  Ironically the show was the perfect X-Mas present. The man and the band have serious chops, and were recently rewarded for their road weary year with a Grammy nomination for “Best Reggae Album”.  Although Toot’s new disc should be given careful consideration, Sweettalk is especially happy for Josh Werner, the man behind the music. While Matis is a fantastic frontman, he is essentially a rap artist.  The musical foundation to the Matisyahu sound is poured by Roots Tonic which consists of Aaron Dugan on guitar, Jonah David on Drums, and Josh Werner on bass.  Sweettalk first met Josh sidestage at a Black Crowes show over a bottle of Patron, where all good friends should be made.  We were the only idiots jumping around playing air guitar and singing all the words in a sea of ditzy mascara laden “band-aids”.  He invited us to one of his shows and we were blown away by the way his group reinvigorated some of the best Carlton Barrett beats, Santana leads, and Scratch Perry grooves . 

At a time when reggae was seemingly on the bench with the exception of “reggaetron”, Matisyahu injected some needed angst and spirituality into the mix. Seriously if we had to hear one more tune about how stanky and phat someone’s spliff was, we’d cough up a lung cookie. After a year or so we ran into each other again but this time it was backstage at Tom Petty.  We cackled at the spectrum of our musical tastes and went to the bar to take up where we had left off.  Under the conditions, We tried to tackle what makes a band “unique”, and the only truth we came across was the ?uestlove Ethos that any good band should be well versed in as many genres as possible, and steal as much as you can from the best of them.  Amen.

Mazel tov to Josh and the rest of the crew. Break a leg on Feb. 11th, Sweettalk will be rooting for you.