Mystic Bowie and Talking Dreads Take New England by Storm From Bath to Plymout

Written by Keisha Martin | AskBlondieTV

Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads brought a distinctly Jamaican pulse to New England this past weekend, taking audiences from the waterfront in Bath, Maine, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, during a two-city run filled with music, movement and unmistakable crowd energy.

Bowie hit the road with an all-star lineup featuring Dan Thomas on guitar, Chris Ball on bass, Jason Metcalf on keyboards, and Kat Douglas and Keisha Martin on vocals.

The weekend opened Saturday, August 15, at the Levitt AMP Bath Waterfront Concert Series, where the Kennebec River served as the backdrop for what became a standout night for the series.

Bath came out in force.

According to concert promoters, the Talking Dreads performance attracted the largest audience the series has drawn since it began, turning the waterfront into a packed outdoor celebration of reggae, rock and community.

Patrons were on their feet, dancing and singing along as the music moved through the waterfront crowd, creating an energy that continued throughout the performance.

For Bowie, the response was another milestone in a musical journey that has spent more than a decade connecting two seemingly different worlds.

Born in Jamaica, Bowie spent nearly 20 years performing with Tom Tom Club, founded by Talking Heads members Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. That history gave him an unusually close connection to the music he would later reimagine through his own Jamaican roots.

Talking Mystic Bowie and Talking Dreads Take New England by Storm From Bath to Plymouth Dreads takes the familiar songwriting of Talking Heads and shifts its rhythmic center, drawing from roots reggae, ska and lovers rock. Songs audiences may have known for decades suddenly move differently without losing the character that made them recognizable in the first place.

It is less about recreating the past than hearing the music from another cultural perspective.

The concept first reached the stage in Negril, Jamaica, in 2015 and has continued evolving ever since. In 2018, Bowie released the self-titled Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads, expanding the project with contributions from an impressive group of musicians, including Freddie McGregor, Ernest Ranglin, Tarrus Riley, Dean Fraser and Cindy Wilson of The B-52s.

More than a decade after its inception, Talking Dreads continues to prove the strength of that idea in front of live audiences.

After the packed Bath performance, the band headed south to The Spire Center for Performing Arts in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Sunday, August 16.

Plymouth proved equally ready for the experience.

Just as they had in Bath, patrons were on their feet dancing and singing along, turning the afternoon into an interactive celebration between the band and the audience.

Onstage, the current touring lineup brought its own chemistry to Bowie’s vision. Thomas, Ball and Metcalf created the instrumental foundation while Douglas and Martin provided vocal support, texture and energy around Bowie’s lead.

The result was a weekend that demonstrated why Talking Dreads has endured beyond the novelty that might initially be suggested by the concept.

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These are songs with history, interpreted by an artist who has his own history with both the musicians who helped create them and the Jamaican musical traditions through which he now presents them.

From a reported record-setting crowd along the Bath waterfront to an equally enthusiastic audience at The Spire in Plymouth, both stops found patrons dancing, singing and fully engaged with the music.

More than ten years after its first performance in Jamaica, the band is still on the road, still finding new audiences and still proving that when musical cultures meet with intention, familiar songs can find an entirely new life.