Marc's Music Beat
Bob Marley’s Bassist, Reggae Expert Discuss Classic Album
The iconic reggae singer would have turned 68 on Wednesday.
This is part one in a two-part series. Nearly 32 years after his death, crowds are still packing concert venues to hear the music of Bob Marley. For Aston “Family Man” Barrett, bandleader and bassist for Bob Marley & The Wailers, the band’s lyrical messages are just as significant as they were in the Marley days. “It’s revelation time. Things [are] difficult at home and abroad, near and far,” Family Man, 66, said in his thick Jamaican accent after a recent show in Washington, D.C. “The world is in trouble.” Family Man, the godfather of reggae bass and the only original member still touring with The Wailers, came to The Howard Theatre in Washington on January 13 to perform Survival, one of the most poignant records in the Bob Marley & The …
