Search - Burning Spear :: Dry & Heavy

Dry & Heavy was originally released in 1977, a watershed time for reggae music. From a year chock-full of classics, Winston "Burning Spear" Rodney's offering ranks among the top. The majority of the songs featured here are remakes from Spear's Studio One days, but the originals have been improved upon with a fuller sound, courtesy of a superior gathering of artists, including Wailers band members Earl "Wire" Lindo, Carlton Barret, and Earl "Chinna" Smith. The lineup also features Dirty Harry Hall, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, and several other musician-actors featured in the roots reality film Rockers, in which Burning Spear had a small yet pivotal role. Don Taylor, who at the time managed both Spear and Bob Marley, is listed as executive producer. The album exists as a perfect entity. First thing you hear after the drums drop in is that distinctive voice--pure and unadorned, calling to you, seemingly, from atop a cliff, stretching out to the ocean. --Rebecca Levine