From the Roots

AMG Review of From the Roots

Steve Leggett
All Music Guide

From the Roots was Toots & the Maytals' fourth album, released by Trojan following the group's signing to Island Records in 1973. The record was cobbled together from odds and ends of tracks recorded between 1969 and 1970 for Leslie Kong's Beverley's label, and while it doesn't contain any of the more famous Kong-produced cuts ("Pressure Drop," "Sweet and Dandy"), it still exhibits the Maytals' trademark Jamaican version of gospelfervor, led by lead singer Toots Hibbert's barn-burning vocal style. Arguably this album, along with its Kong-produced predecessor, 1970's Monkey Man, contains the best and most explosive tracks in the Maytals' discography, and compilations that reshuffle the two albums in different combinations are common in the record bins.