Brewfish headlines Grassroots Music and Arts Festival

Summer is the season for reggae festivals.

“This is the time when everyone is out, the weather is right and the days are long and beautiful,” says Alex Kay, singer/guitarist with the Long Beach rock-reggae trio Brewfish, which headlines Fresno’s Grassroots Music and Arts Festival, happening Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Tioga Sequoia Brewing Company.

The free, all-ages festival features eight local and regional reggae bands, including Prime Livity, Irie Sun, Mellow Movement, High Praise, Sweet HayaH, Lively Soul and Irie Essence.

Brewfish shares a musical heritage with its Long Beach predecessors, namely Sublime. The band plays contemporary reggae, inspired by traditional Jamaican sounds but filtered through a stream of California rock, funk and hip-hop.

“We grew up with the reggae and rock-reggae godfathers,” Kay says.

They were also into Long Beach G-Funk and Tha Dogg Pound Gang (Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Warren G and the like). They listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Even now, the trio is taken in by artists like The Weeknd.

“We listen to all of it and are always inspired,” Kay says.

They are not alone. The West Coast has a growing scene of young up-start bands, Kay says. There’s The Originalites from Huntington Beach, The Green Leefs from Salt Lake City and Arise Roots from Los Angeles. These bands are creating their own off-shoot style and redefining contemporary reggae music.

It’s a natural turn of events, Kay says. As a style, reggae is universally accessible and lends itself to any sort of occasion, he says.

“It’s easy for creative individuals to take that, and just run with it.”

And it makes sense that many of these bands call California home, Kay says: “It’s a perfect, uniformed crossover, from the sounds of the roots to the cool, relaxed atmosphere of our state.”

Brewfish’s album “Flashing Lights” is available now on iTunes. The band is working on new music and will be headed into the studio soon.

This story was originally published July 30, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Brewfish headlines Grassroots Music and Arts Festival."