Seasonal greetings from germany!

Some of oyu will remember that little “project” of mine I started last year...
I called it “German Advent Calendar Goodies” (or GACG), with reference to a
German tradition which goes by the same name...to make it short: by end of
november little kids here in Germany are presented so called “advent calendars”...
usually these are pre-manufactured cardboard boxes that contain 24 little pieces
of chocolate hidden behind 24 tiny little cardboard doors...starting with December
1st the kids may open one door a day, thereby counting down the days until on the
24th, Santa or what we call him, the “Christkind” or the “Weihnachtsmann” comes
and brings the “real” presents...obviously there are no limits when you want to
alter this tradition, a lot of parents (including my wife) make the effort and
create their own unique calendar, taking little canvas bags, attach the numbers
on them and then not only hide chocolate but other goodies, too big to put in
a thin cardboard box...now, my own “virtual” advent calendar last year could
potentially be “opened” by roughly 102,000 people...all you nice (well, most
of them) folks in this community! It contained Reggae music, something I have
been collecting for almost thirty years now. A few months ago I broke through
the “1,000 live shows” barrier. Obviously in these days I could easily double
that number but since I still have the ambition to listen to everything I download
at least once I started to concentrated on quality, rather than quantity, especially
since I am old school when it comes to Reggae... all these “modern” reggae artists
just don’t do it for me and even most of the “original” guys have either disappeared
or taken the commercial road (can’t blame them, though).

Anyway, I got some real nice and warm responses last year so I decided to stick to
the tradition and create another reggae calendar for 2008. In 2007 I did not start
until December 12th or so, this year it will be “the real deal”: 24 shows for
24 days. And since 24 easily divides into 8, I planned to split my seeds into three
different categories: behind the first eight doors you found reggae artists who
are rarely featured here on DIME...for some of them it might even have been the first time
ever...the mid section of the calendar presented better known bands and singers with
some rather rare or at least special concerts...and as we now close in on Christmas you can
expect a “simple” best of complation, nothing rare, nothing special (at least not for
the die hard collectors), just great musicians with great shows in superb (for Reggae
standards) quality.



Okay folks, the big day is almost there. Hopefully your mood does get as merry as mine...
and if you ain't there yet, maybe these final two seeds will help you...in late October of 1981,
BOB MARLEY'S former musicians left Jamaica to perform for a few dates in California, as far as I know
their first shows after they had hit the stage of Jamaica's Reggae Sunsplash earlier that summer.
They played concerts in Berkeley as well as in Reseda's Country Club and this where we will
join them. The show on October 27 is special in a lot of ways: first of all during the later
half the WAILERS are joined by the likes of JOE HIGGS, BUNNY RUGS CLARKE, IBO COOPER, CAT COORE
and FREDDIE MC GREGOR, to create a unique, once in a life time "all star feeling"...after all,
MARLEY had died less than six months ago and the feeling of loss was still very much felt by
all those present that day.

Then, one of the songs performed was "Forever loving Jah", a track many MARLEY fans (including
myself) do rank among their top ten ever. However, until this very day no live recording by the
man himself has surfaced, only a tour rehearsal. Also, check out the "unrehearsed" killer-slow
instrumental version of "Running away" with the late CARLTON BARRETT on nyahbinghi drums.

WAILERS BAND Reseda, CA, Country Club, 1981-10-27

CD 01

01 My my People JUDY MOWATT & MARCIA GRIFFITHS
02 Slave Queen JUDY MOWATT & MARCIA GRIFFITHS

03 Running away Instrumental
04 Positive Vibration
05 Them Belly full (but we hungry)
06 Zion Train
07 The Heathen
08 War
09 No more Trouble

CD 02

01 Get up stand up w/ JOE HIGGS
02 Redemption Song w/ BUNNY RUGS & IBO COOPER
03 Exodus
04 Interlude - MC Roger Steffens
05 Forever loving Jah w/ BUNNY RUGS, CAT COORE & FREDDIE MC GREGOR
06 One Drop w/ BUNNY RUGS, CAT COORE & FREDDIE MC GREGOR


by the way: did I mention that this is a perfect sounding SBD recording?


sorry, no further lineage info but as always: be assured it is close to the original board tape


"Happy Festivus" (George Costanza)