Luciano ADD

Review

Album Review: The Mighty Rootsmen

07/25/2025

by Angus Taylor

In the 21st century, several assemblages of top reggae musicians and singers have replicated the Ry Cooder / Buena Vista Social Club album format. We've heard the French-sponsored second iteration of Jamaican acoustic collective Inna De Yard, the Canadian-helmed Kingston All Stars, and the Swiss-curated, all-instrumental Roots Architects. Arguably, a trend-setting Jamaican Buena Vista project was 2009 documentary Rocksteady The Roots Of Reggae and its soundtrack, produced by Moss Raxlen, who later convened Kingston All Stars. But shortly after Rocksteady…, it seems a US venture attempted the same thing, only to get shelved for 15 years.

Recorded in 2009-2010, the album of reggae supergroup The Mighty Rootsmen's sessions has finally been released. It was created at the behest of LA-based music producer, soundtrack composer and screenwriter Ralph Sall. He'd previously secured Burning Spear to record for a 1991 Grateful Dead tribute album and hit on the idea to create “a Travelling Wilburys of reggae”. He recruited members of Peter Tosh’s Word Sound Power/Sly & Robbie's Taxi Gang and Zap Pow Horns to back the rich voices of Toots Hibbert, Gregory Isaacs, Mykal Rose and Luciano, singing classic rock and easy listening covers. Taking his cue from Chris Blackwell’s use of Wayne Perkins and Rabbit Bundrick on Catch A Fire, Sall brought in US guitarists Steve Miller, Mike Campbell and Dan Petty - as well as Third World’s Cat Coore - to add a rock garnish to some of the rhythms. The project got lost in the shuffle of other ventures and was parked until now.

It's both a blessing and a challenge that the album has taken so long to come out. On the one hand, such supergroups now have a welcome familiarity and their value in giving work to veteran session players is understood. On the other, the field is more crowded. Recently, Kingston Sound System adopted a similar format with pop covers, using the actual vocals of Steve Winwood, Jimmy Somerville and Blondie, “reggaefying” their old hits.

It’s also the kind of project that, if phoned in, would be an artificially sweetened, nutrient free exercise. Yet any concerns are overpowered by sheer musicianship, and the realisation that Toots, Gregory, Mykal and Luci, and players like Sly, Robbie, Mikey Chung, Bubbler Waul, Robbie Lyn and Sticky Thompson always had a roving ear and a genuine love of international hit songs. For the liner notes of the Roots Architects album, Robbie Lyn told this writer how Robbie Shakespeare all but forced the equally formidable Peter Tosh to change the rhythm for Buckingham Palace to sound like Da Ya Think I’m Sexy by Rod Stewart. In a recent Reggaeville interview, German author Helmut Phillips revealed that Jamaica’s Channel One studio was fixated on replicating trends in international pop music. 

The added perk is hearing some of Jamaica’s preeminent singers bouncing off each other’s voices. A fired up and deeply soulful Toots, a less Waterhouse-styled Rose, and a reduced but still charismatic Isaacs trade couplets on Tom Petty's Won't Back Down (all men who faced adversity in their lives, wrongful arrest and being undervalued by producers for Toots, the messy breakup of Black Uhuru for Rose, addiction for Isaacs). Likewise, Luciano and Toots find common ground in their textured tones, with Mykal as the point of contrast, on Stephen Stills’ Love The One You’re With. Standouts include Toots and Mykal getting more space on a sleek duet of Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle, and Luciano, Toots and Rose tripling up on a propulsively Sly-motored take on the Eagles' Take It Easy, which feels exactly like the Travelling Wilburys meeting of heavyweights Sall planned. Toots and Luciano, in particular, have a great affinity with rock cover versions - and fans of Toots excellent interpretation of Radiohead’s Let Down for Easy Star All Stars, and Luci’s version of Dylan’s Knocking On Heaven’s Door will find them on similar territory here. Most of these songs have not been famously covered in Jamaican lore, except John Denver’s Sunshine On My Shoulders, reinterpreted in 1975 by Pat Kelly (just as Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads, was memorably done over by Toots in 1973). 

While it speaks to their collective prowess and back catalogues, the name Mighty Rootsmen is something of a misnomer. This is not a release for anyone who loves their reggae rhythms raw, rough and tough. But if you enjoy reggae's rich history of cover versions and cream musicianship, it’s an easy and, welcomely in these hard times, uplifting listen. As the liner notes by David Katz remind, the project has extra poignancy because many of the key participants are no longer with us, such as Robbie Shakespeare, Mikey Chung, Sticky Thompson, Toots, and Gregory – the latter having to exit the Rootsmen early due to ill health. Hopefully there will be a Volume 2, as we’ll not hear the likes of these musicians and singers again. 

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