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MATISYAHU
LIVE AT STUBB’S
Or/JDub/Epic
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It’s been a good year for outsider reggae, with appealing records by such non-Jamaican singers as Willie Nelson, Sinéad O’Connor, and Matisyahu, a 26-year-old Hasidic Jew from Crown Heights in Brooklyn. It’s interesting to hear how these artists find their way into reggae; as Nelson makes plain on the marijuana-emblazoned cover of his Countryman, a love of weed bridges cultures like little else. Matisyahu, like O’Connor, responds to reggae’s religious pulse: on "King Without a Crown" — the breakout track from this live album, which he recorded in February before a supportive crowd in Austin — he rejects dope, stressing the importance of opening oneself to God as opposed to aimless earthly diversions. What’s less potent than Matisyahu’s conviction throughout Live at Stubb’s is his songwriting, which tends to blur into one long granola-skank groove. (He followed Phish around on tour before he started performing his own music.) A studio album he recorded with Bill Laswell is due out in January; perhaps Bill inspired a more varied palette for Matisyahu’s devotionals. Matisyahu + Pigeon John | Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | Dec 26 | 617.226.6000.
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