Marley's Ghost

Loaded with angry lyrics, a reggae revival is spicing up the mainstream and heating up the charts

There's a whiff of ganja in the air as Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers take the stage of Manhattan's Academy theater under a backdrop of painted African masks. The band launches into a chugging Jamaican groove, and the young crowd that has filled the house churns and bobs to the buoyant, upside- down beat. Midway through the show the Melody Makers break into an impassioned rendition of the Bob Marley classic I Shot the Sheriff and then segue into the blistering grind of Head Top, from their strong new album Joy and Blues. As Ziggy, 24, rekindles his father's musical...

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