Thursday, November 20, 2008

Gives thanks. TOK on Columbus Thanksgiving Night!


Yes, it’s yet another hot stageshow coming in 2009 as Roots Records (Columbus) presents T.O.K. in concert! It all goes down Thanksgiving night, NEXT Thursday, November 27th. The reggae style crooners haven’t made it to Ohio in more than a few years (since The Odean, I remember), but these fellas present a show full of high energy leaving many audiences impressed…

The four singers began T.O.K. -- the acronym originally stood for Touch of Klass consists of Alistaire McCalla, Roshaun Clarke, and Craig Thompson who all met in the school choir at Kingston's Campion College, while friend Xavier Davidson attended Calabar High School.

T.O.K. began by performing R&B covers, but that inevitably changed. As Davidson explained, "We're Jamaican. That has to come out in the music, and that's what happened, gradually."

By 1993, the harmonious quartet placed second in the annual Tastee Talent Contest. Though they didn't win, their appearance helped bring them to Nuff Records, where they recorded a few tracks for the label, although nothing hit the charts. By 1996, they were on Sly & Robbie's Taxi label, where the single "Hit Them High" appeared, again making no real impact. From there it was on to Main Street, where they encountered engineer Richard Browne, who was about to start his own label. T.O.K. opted to go with the engineer, who was just a couple of years older than them.

Their first successful effort for his new High Profile label went nowhere, but the follow-up, "Hardcore Lover," which teamed them with dancehall queen Lady Saw, rose to number four.

After this success, T.O.K. followed up by releasing a series of singles like "Whoa" and "Ill Nana" that kept crashing into the charts. Wanting to return to
dancehall which had become a much bigger influence and their sound, the 1998 release of "Eagles Cry" (a nod to Prince's "When Doves Cry") gave the band their first number one.

Other hot tunes by the crew include; the heavily political and most frequenylt heard, ‘Chi Chi Man’, (2000)’, ‘My Crew, My Dawgs’ (2001) - , T.O.K. released on their own X.C.A.R.R. label and the recent single, ‘Footprints’ and ‘She’s Hot’ from the latest ‘Unknown Language’ released in 2005.

Once again, it’s all about a road trip Cleveland! For more information about this concert, log on to:
www.rootsrecords.com!

Hoping they sing ‘Money 2 Burn’,

Bashy

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