Nasio Fontaine

Billed as a "best of” album, Rise Up is a standard career overview of the pride of Dominica that offers tracks from four albums, plus a live DVD recorded in Sierra Leone. The DVD, unfortunately, shows only short clips of the concert and doesn’t allow the listener to enjoy any full songs. Nasio won’t soon dodge the Bob Marley comparisons with this comp but I doubt he wants to, seeing as that’s his bread and butter. With the Wailers as the most obvious inspiration for Nasio’s sound, what is noticeable here is the attention to detail in recreating that classic Wailers feel — from arrangements that could have been dreamed up by Familyman himself to "zap, pow”-style horns and I-Threes sound-alike backing vocalists. Songs like "Rise Up,” "Justice” and material from his most recent album, Universal Cry, broaden the album’s musical palette somewhat and show Nasio stretching his horizons but for the most part, long-time fans will revel in the post-Marley roots reggae Nasio does best.