Tubby Love

Buffalo Soul. Boston reggae band built of love and positive vibrations. Please, enjoy and experience.

The Soul comes from: Dan Africano (bass), Tubby Love (vocals, guitar), Mariletta Konstantara (vocals, awesomeness), Luke Ptomey (drums), Neal Evans (percussion), Brian Paulding (trombone), Wesley Maples (sax), and Mike Hurwitz (keys)

These first two clips of the Soul are from T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge, Mass, video by Righteous Larissa Green. This footage is from their very first show EVER 11.19.2009 opening up for Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. The story of how they came together is so perfect I'm going to get all the details before I share it. Apparently all their songs were written in one month, every person in this band is 100% positive vibrations and love and I tell you, people, if you want to FEEL some music, if you want happy music that resonates all the way to your bouncy core - Buffalo Soul has got your back. They will play hype man with guitar - except woman also. And profoundly wordified perspectives vocally woven into air. And percussion and bass and keys and drums and horns and - all of it is part of the World Brain, certifiably. The story of how Buffalo Soul came to be might just be one of the great rocken reggae stories of our time... LOVE! - Areal Shearer of High Times Magazine

There's a song I can't get out of my head this week. It's called "Signs," and it was written (and performed in an utterly captivating YouTube video) by Tubby Love and Emily Elbert, a couple of students at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Anyone familiar with Tubby Love - a.k.a. Savannah native Andrew Terrett - will recognize the joyful "Signs" as indicative of his m.o., which is a gently rolling sort of pop/reggae with positive lyrics. This tune has a gorgeous melody, and a sweet vibe, and the video (shot in Tubby Love's Boston music room) is crude but ah, so cool.

Elbert is a 21-year-old singing, songwriting wunderkind, considered one of Beantown's most promising, but Tubby Love, he's a veteran. He graduated from Berklee last spring with plans to continue the writing, gigging and recording career he began as a Chatham County teen.

He's on a short southern swing this week, before heading to California to cut some new tracks, which will be followed by a jaunt to Hawaii and an extended stay in the mountains of Peru (he's just that kind of guy). Around next March, Tubby plans to relocate, permanently, to New York City.

A five-man band (called Tubby Love) will play several shows here this week, including Saturday's big one on the Live Wire Music Hall stage (unfortunately, Elbert isn't part of this tour).

The band includes bass, drums, keyboards, T.L. on guitar, and trombone player Scott Flynn, who's a member of the semi-legendary roots/reggae band John Brown's Body.

Gray Bashew (a.k.a. Graynation), the drummer, is an Atlanta native who met Terrett at Georgia State University. They attended Berklee at the same time (Gray is the third person you'll see in the "Signs" video).

They set up this mini-tour together. "We're still at the point where we're booking our own gigs and doing everything guerilla-style," says Mr. Love. "Which is really cool, because we don't have to pay anyone to do that for us. And we have the connections, and the ability, and we're gotten the word out about our music enough to have a draw."

After Savannah, the ensemble will play the famous Five Spot club in Atlanta. "They're really excited to see us in Atlanta. We haven't been there for two years. We're gonna have a massive crowd come out."

There is, Tubby Love admits, another reason for the southern trek. "We're going to have a lot of down time, so we're going to set up this musical lair in my home in Savannah. We're not going to spend our down time chasing ladies, like we have in the past. We're going to try and use that time to make new music." - Bill DeYoung - Connect Savannah