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FREE SHOW! Coming from the East coast with a fresh, upbeat yet, vintage sound, DUBBEST has swiftly emerged onto the North American Reggae radar in recent years. The Boston-bred outfit of four high school friends have created a unique sound for themselves that intertwines their earlier passions for punk and ska while submersing them in their more recent infatuation with experimental dub and jam style genres.

Originally formed in 2009, DUBBEST has taken time to explore an entirely new musical approach that was influenced by jam bands such as The Grateful Dead and Phish but also reawakened by the likes of pioneering dub producers, Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, Lee “Scratch” Perry and more specifically, Augustus Pablo’s 1974 dub classic, Ital Dub.

Since moving to the West coast in February of 2016, DUBBEST has quickly become noticed as one of the hardest working bands on the rise. Touring relentlessly and sharing their infectious energy all across the nation whether as openers, supporting acts, or headliners, the band continues to make fans with each new encounter. The live show is not one to be overlooked as the band embraces the chance to be themselves by frequently throwing in expanded freestyle dub sections to their original songs while also performing obscure roots reggae tracks in a style all their own. Their unique, melodic sound has been widely accepted to the point that within a year of relocating, the band released 2016’s Live at The Belly Up, which was recorded live during their set at one of So Cal’s premier venues.

The band’s professionalism on the road and passion for playing live in front of any audience has gained them the respect from many established reggae bands of the same era. Now having shared the stage with well-known talent from earlier times such as The Wailers, Barrington Levy, and The Itals to more recent acts like Stick Figure, The Green, J Boog, John Brown’s Body, The Expanders, Iya Terra, Arise Roots and more, DUBBEST proceeds to seek out any opportunity to display the experience of life, love, happiness, and truth via sound and vibration.

 

Devin Morrison aka Man-Like-Devin is a songwriter, guitarist and collector of Jamaican music born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.. In 1999 he co-founded Los Angeles roots-reggae group The Expanders. They spent the next decade playing in and around the L.A. area as part of the city’s then-thriving ska, rocksteady and early reggae scene. During that time they also performed throughout California as the backing band for many of their Jamaican musical heroes including Alton Ellis, Leonard Dillon of The Ethiopians, The Wailing Souls, The Maytones and many more. The Expanders released four studio albums from 2011-2018, the latter two of which each debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Chart.
In 2018 Devin joined the Long Beach Dub All Stars, toured extensively with them, and recorded guitar on their 2019 record Long Beach Dub Allstars.

Man-Like-Devin’s first acoustic solo record Wheel And Shoulder: Acoustic Reggae, Rocksteady & Ska Vol I was released August 20, 2021 on the Rootfire Cooperative label. The full-length LP is a completely acoustic album with no electric instruments that features Morrison’s GRAMMY-nominated brother Patrick Morrison on upright bass, banjo and lead acoustic guitars, Devin’s father Tom Morrison on harmonica, and The California Honeydrops.

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