The California Roots Music & Arts Festival has moved its annual event from May 22-24 to Oct. 9-11 at the Monterey County Fair and Event Center. According to the festival, 99% of its original lineup plans to return on the rescheduled dates with headlining appearances from Damian Marley, Rebelution, Stick Figure, Sean Paul, Ice Cube, Atmosphere, Chronixx, Sublime with Rome and many more.
The California festival has partnered with Ineffable Records to release 21 never-before-heard tracks from artists from the Cali Roots scene called Cali Roots Riddim 2020. Starting Friday with Collie Buddz’ “Hold Firm,” a new song from the project will drop on all digital music platforms with the full project coming out on May 22, the original kick off date for Cali Roots 2020.
“As we continue to deal with these unprecedented circumstances, we want to thank our community for being so patient. We hope that the release of ‘Cali Roots Riddim 2020’ will keep fans quenched with new music as we all wait a bit longer to enjoy our annual weekend together,” said Cali Roots co-producer and Ineffable partner Dan Sheehan in a release. “The project is exciting, as we are the first festival to launch its own ‘riddim.'”
A riddim is an instrumental that is sent to a number of artists, each recording vocals and creating a unique song over the same exact instrumental. Riddim compilations have been a part of Jamaican and reggae music culture for decades and in this case will feature top reggae acts from the US, as well as incorporating Jamaican acts and acts from around the world.
Cali Roots Riddim 2020 is produced by Bermudian reggae star Collie Buddz and will include American reggae artists like SOJA, Pepper, Common Kings, and The Movement who have joined Jamaican stars like Jesse Royal and Anthony B. Other international acts like France’s Dub Inc and Germany’s Gentleman will add their own unique song over the same beat.
Beginning Friday, a single from the project will be released each Friday leading up to the full 21 track compilation’s release. The version with Collie Buddz’s vocals, “Hold Firm” will drop on March 27, The Movement’s track “Alien” will drop on April 3, and Anthony B’s track “Chill Out” will drop April 10.
“We’re living in a time that has decimated the music industry amongst many other industries. A lot of our business revolves around the live side, so right now we need to be creative. While we started this project before the crisis hit, we believe projects like these are what the industry needs to focus on for the time being,” said Ineffable Music’s head of label services and Cali Roots Riddim executive producer Adam Gross in a release. “21 acts all around the world banding together to promote each other’s music is really a beautiful thing, and we need to do all we can to unify and lift all boats and help each other out right now. This virus can take away a lot of things, but it cannot take away our ability to stream music to support independent artists.”
California Roots Festival and Ineffable Records are both part of the Ineffable Music Group umbrella.