Rising Force for Change

Dub Nation is a longstanding main attraction of Northern California’s Reggae on the River, as well as the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. The group's long-awaited third studio album was 12 years in the making. A nine-piece ensemble with a three-piece horn section and an orchestral sextet, the musicians of Dub Nation orbit around producer and mainstay Frank Caruso, who also handles some bass, guitar, percussion, synthesizer, and drumming duties. Following a two-minute psychedelic intro (“Prelude: We Bring Unity”), the album kicks off with “Gotono (Forward Now),” a sprawling, lush reggae jam that bounces on bobbing rhythms, grinding Hammond B3 organ and an angelic chorus of backing singers supporting frontman Paul Dawson. A rootsy melodica introduces the simmering “Giving You All,” a mellower musing of lover’s rock featuring the sultry singing of Tatiana Miath. Guest vocalist GC Cameron from The Temptations and The Spinners lends gritty soul to the band’s “Carousel,” but the real gems surface in the rootsy reworkings of his '70s Motown hits “’Tis a Shame” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”