On January 27, I went to check out our LA publicist pal Ken Phillip’s new find, Vanguard artist Trevor Hall at Café Du Nord. I’d been enjoying this handsome South Carolina’s self-titled debut record for a couple weeks – a pleasant and tasty brew of Ben Harper/Dave Matthews-esque acoustic pop/rock blended with pure Bob Marley reggae roots. What really drew me in and captured my attention was Hall’s sage, decades-beyond his 22 year-old deep thoughts: poignant prayers for world-wide peace, love and harmony that seemed to channel the real-deal reggae dudes like Marley and modern-day prophets like Gandhi on songs like “Where’s The Love” and “Unity”.

But I found that the only way to fully grasp the Trevor Hall experience is to witness it up close and personal. Wearing traditional Hindu/Muslim garb and his blond hair in long dreads, Hall, his acoustic guitar, and his super-humanly talented band: groovin’ bass player Mario Luevanos and unstoppable drummer Chris Steele transported this sometimes jaded music maker and observer to a place where standing still was illegal. From the first hit of the drums and thump of the bass, my body just started swaying with moves I haven’t attempted since my ska/reggae days in ‘80s LA. I was boogie-ing on reggae woman the entire set! I have never seen anybody play with such intensity, precision and conviction like Steele - he was like three people, hitting all those Rasta beats, and Luevanos never stopped moving as he laid the bottom down, down, down. As for Hall, the way he coaxed such life out of his acoustic guitar as he delivered his joyful messages for the
masses was almost like a religious experience – the crowd hung on his every note and word in joyous rapture. The only drawback was the amount of reverb on Hall’s voice - it was way too much and took away from his performance and the power of the beautiful songs. Scale it down, dude, we love you just the way you are!

Highest high point was during “The Lime Tree” (an infectious duet with current “It-Girl” Colbie Caillat on his record). Hall stopped singing and the whole audience took the lead, singing "It took awhile to for you to find me/But I was hiding in the lime tree" over and over till he ended the song with the die-hard fan chorus. We singer/songwriters live for the possibility of that moment all our lives. http://www.trevorhallmusic.com/

--Kimberlye Gold