Gordon Williams, Contributor

Left: Maxi Priest - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer.   Right: Toots performing at Sunsplash 2006. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

FLORIDA:

Reggae Sunsplash made an explosive return to America last weekend after close to a decade's absence, injecting a feel-good buzz into three Florida cities before rolling along on a summer tour that targets nearly 20 stops across the U.S., from established music festival playgrounds, such as, Westbury, New York to lesser known sites, such as, The Backyard of Texas.

If the Florida shows - at West Palm Beach, Tampa and Cocoa Beach - were any indication of what the tour's theme of 'Uniting the World Through Music' wanted to bring to the United States, headline acts UB40, Toots and the Maytals, Maxi Priest and Third World certainly delivered.

Fresh off the recent Reggae Sunsplash in Jamaica, the three shows in the southern U.S. state offered up spanking clean reggae entertainment cleverly seasoned with a rock and R&B flavour that appealed to the predominantly white audiences which have long supported the music here.

Even if the back-to-back efforts carried way too much predictability for those fans willing to make all three Florida stops, and capacity crowds did not flock to the pleasant venues, the music's romance of those who attended could hardly be denied.

High enthusiasm

Unfortunately for early act, Third World, the still getting-home-from-work crowds missed most of the pleasing sets they had to offer. Yet, even as the stinging sun slowly descended to be replaced by cool, refreshing coastal breeze - especially at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm and Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre - the tempo and fan enthusiasm always seemed to rise steadily as the tightly timed show juggled on, climaxing with the irrepressible closers, UB40.

Newly-wed Rik Rok relished his cameo appearance, especially on the monster hit It Wasn't Me, even without Shaggy's input. But it was Maxi Priest's intense onstage energy, - let loose in a string of hits, such as, Close to You, Man With The Fun and Just a Little Bit Longer, plus a stirring take-off of the late Dennis Brown's Should I, - that showed the British-born singer of Jamaican parents enjoying himself at each stop as well. The audience too, singing along, waving and standing from virtually the first note, had a good time, especially when Priest climbed from the stage to personally deliver Cat Stevens's Wild World and embrace them in Tampa.

Equal verves

Toots and the Maytals followed Maxi Priest on stage each time to match the challenge with equal verve. Ironically, or not, in West Palm Beach, Toots the master showman, hit back early with a bouncy, but subdued Pressure Drop, before stepping up the tempo with time-tested classics, such as, Do the Reggae, Time Tough, Country Road, Pomps and Pride, Reggae Got Soul and dedicating a special 54-46 (That's My Number) to a fully revved-up audience that by now had swamped to the front of the stage jumping around in the spirit of a Sunday down home revival, which had come a few days early.

By the time Sunsplash rolled into Tampa, the bottles of water Toots threw into the audience after his performances were clearly well appreciated by the fans overheated with passion for the music legend.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.