It took a couple of songs for the Wailers to hit their stride last night before a packed crowd at Trustees Theater, but the band soon had the entire audience standing, swaying, dancing, and singing.

The band performed the famed album Survival in its entirety, and then seemed to end the show — a curious moment as they had only been performing for 45 minutes. And then they came back out for the “encore” — over an hour of Bob Marley and the Wailers most recognizable hits.

Bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett is the living connection to Marley — although for the first couple of numbers it seemed like Barrett’s bass line was going to drown out even the vocals. But soon the levels got right, and lead singer Koolant Brown took over the show.

I was really impressed by Koolant, a cool and sexy frontman who does just about everything one could want in channeling the spirit of Marley.

Koolant was joined at first only by the guitar for “Redemption Song” to start the second half of the show. It was a beautiful, stirring version, and one could feel the religious roots of the music coursing through the crowd.

As the diverse audience rocked and danced, the band performed the classics: “Stir It Up”, “One Love”, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, “I Shot the Sheriff”, and “Exodus”.

This was the Savannah Music Festival’s first programming of reggae, and I’m guessing the festival was thrilled with the full house and the glowing reception.

Though we don’t get to hear much live reggae around these parts, the songs of Bob Marley have pretty close to universal appeal — young and old, black and white, men and women. The crowd knew the lyrics to all the classics, so that Koolant could just turn the mic toward the audience whenever he wished. But the show was at its best when Koolant was singing passionately as the entire house rocked along with him.

Click here to go straight to the SMF site with more info on each act.

I have to say that I’m most excited to see The Wailers, even though it’s been over 30 years since Bob Marley died. I haven’t double checked, but I don’t think the SMF has ever had a reggae act, and we rarely get great reggae acts coming through town at all. I haven’t seen a reggae show of this scale in Savannah since Black Uhuru played outside on River Street more than 15 years ago. Bonus points to anyone else who remembers that.

Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have played the SMF before, but this is a welcome return. The Tedeschi Trucks Band will play the big stage of Johnny Mercer Theatre. So will Old Crow Medicine Show, which has gigs later this year lined up with both The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons.

Dr. John is into his 70s now, but I hear great things about his most recent album and about his recent live shows. I bought tickets for that show too.

Sea Wolf will play at the Ships of the Sea North Garden. From Sea Wolf’s Facebook page:

Taking its name from novelist Jack Londonâ€s 1904 seafaring adventure, Sea Wolf has evolved organically from its hermetic origins in Alex Brown Churchâ€s living room into a muscular, full-bodied musical entity with passion to burn. After adopting the sobriquet, Church burst onto the music scene in two-fisted fashion with the EP, Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low, and the subsequent full-length debut album, Leaves in the River, about which Interview magazine observed, “His music is both erudite and unvarnished, a blend of swirling melodies, literary balladry and damaged art-rock composition.”

Here’s a taste of Sea Wolf:

Old Crow Medicine Show

A great community event to flesh out an already meaty SMF lineup.

To take you out, here’s Old Crow Medicine Show: