Al Anderson

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                                                                                                                                     Aston Barrett

Al Anderson __________________________________

Al Anderson, the only American to become a member of the Wailers, shared lead guitar with Junior Marvin during Marley' perhaps most powerful and transcendent songwriting period: 1978-1981. The twin lead guitars on Survival and Uprising lent a rock feel to the Wailers' international reggae.

Anderson seems to have barely aged since-- his unlined face and dark braids do not betray 16 years of touring and studio work with the likes of Markie Mark, Ben Harper and the surviving members of the Wailers. The music has sustained him.

"It's the music even still- with Bob's passing, and Peter's passing. The music, our music has kept us alive. Just being able to work, and the music itself, which Bob just said 'keep playing the music, and keep believing in what you're doing,' concerning him and the band."

Anderson's first contributions to the band were overdubs on and for the Natty Dread LP.

After Natty Dread was completed, Bob invited Al to return to Jamaica with him. In 1975 Al toured with the Wailers to support Natty Dread, but left the Wailers in 1977 due to "managerial problems." He begin a yearlong stint in the Peter Tosh group. Anderson returned in 1978 to accompany the Wailers on select live dates in the United States and Europe, including the Pavilion de Paris show immortalized on and a June 17 sold-out show at Madison Square Garden before 18,000.

He recently performed with , the Marley family and the Fugees at the 1997 Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden. The February 26 performance was his first at the Garden since 1980, when the Wailers performed with the Commodores.

Q: How did you meet up with the Wailers?

Al: I was very fortunate to have two friends, English fellas: Chris Wood and Steve Winwood from Traffic. And Chris Wood had invited me to come over and work with him on his solo record, and through Chris and Paul Kossoff I got the opportunity to work with Chris Blackwell from Island Records. And with Chris Blackwell I was able to work on Natty Dread with Bob Marley. The first time I met Bob was in the winter of 1973.

Q: What did you know of the Wailers then?

Al: Paul Kossoff had turned me on to and I heard Wayne Perkins, Bobby Womax' lead guitar player, who played on and I liked that a lot. I said to myself, 'if that's the direction they're going then I want to be a part of this.'" What was really exceptional were the bass and the drums-- I liked that very much-- the drumming of Carlton Barrett and the bass playing of Aston Barrett. It was a heavy and steady sound, and I went right along with that.

In 1975, Anderson was invited to tour America and Europe to support sales of Natty Dread. It was the Wailers' second major American tour. The concerts were booked at small to medium size venues, such as the Roxy in Los Angeles and Paul's Mall in Boston. The Wailers would often play two sets a night, sometimes seven nights a week.

"Bob could get his point across to a large audience in a small place," Anderson said.

The energy of those shows drew from the disciplined rehearsals and exacting sound the Wailers demanded from their equipment.

"People were interested and the attitude was all positive. People really dug what we were doing. We were playing small clubs at that time, and the sound was really good. We were working with Carl Peterson [engineer, ] and he got our sound perfect."

Q: Tell us about the routine on the road.

From the bus, to the plane, to the hotel, to the gig. Everything was centered towards the music. We had our best times at sound rehearsal, where we would jam y' know. The Barrett brothers, and Bob up front, and Tryone and Wire, Junior and me, I-threes; we would just sing all these old songs from the earlier days before us (before me, anyway) and all our new songs as well. We would basically just jam. Bob loved to jam. Get out there and just jam all this music. And get a really good sound for the gig, y' know. And set up the P.A. properly, and everybody had their monitor and their sound comfortable. So that while we performing the people could feel what we were feeling musically. It made it much easier for us to get our point across to them because the sound was 100%.

Recording with the Wailers

In the studio, the strict regimen of rehearsals and close attention to sound quality intensified.

Al: What people don't realize is that after Peter Bob and Bunny had split, the band produced all of Bob's music, from Natty Dread on forward. Bob wrote all the songs, he had all the lyric content. But in terms of the arrangements, and how the music was put together, Family Man played a great role. And engineering the albums as well. We had a really good working relationship. All the ideas we had gelled. We could turn a rock steady into a Ska, if we had to. We could just switch it around. What was it-- Bad Card. Turn that into a Ska, that was a rock steady. We just had the ability to change things around.

Q: What's the state of reggae music?

Al: Jamaica being such a small place, the influence is so large. Everybody knows what dreadlock runnings is all about, and herb, and liberty." The message is reaching its right people, like Bob said. There are so many great veteran reggae artists that are still touring and still recording." There was a great concert festival down in Long Beach for three nights. Skatalites, Junior Reid, Gregory Isaacs, wow, Luciano. Barrington Levy, it was great. It's good to see people get great music."

Anderson is currently in Brazil, rehearsing for a planned world tour with Wailers Tyrone Downie, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, Earl "Wire" Lindo, and Junior Marvin. He recently completed work on Ben Harper's album, "The Will to Live."

Al is also featured on three tracks playing guitar on Lauryn Hill's new album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" and is currently touring with Lauryn.

Mr. Anderson resides in Los Angeles.