Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Toots Hibbert

TOOTS Hibbert, who has enjoyed a career renaissance in the last five years, is part of a three-act North American tour with pop singers Sheryl Crow and James Blunt.

Hibbert told The Gleaner Monday that he was contacted by Crow's management to be opening act for the jaunt which starts today with Crow and Blunt performing in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hibbert is scheduled to join them on Monday for the third show of the trek - at the Jones Beach Amphitheatre in Wantagh, New York. In all, Hibbert and his Maytals band will perform on 17 dates, the last being at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, California, on August 27.

Crow, who is the headline performer, is promoting her new Detours album.

The Clarendon-born Hibbert has found a new generation of fans in the United States thanks largely to his 2004 album, True Love, which heard him collaborating with big names like Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, The Roots and Bootsy Collins.

The album won Best Reggae Album award at the 2005 Grammy Awards.

Strong fan base

Hibbert has been recording since the early 1960s when he recorded a succession of hit songs including Monkey Man, 54-46 and Funky Kingston. During the 1970s, he developed a strong fan base throughout Europe and a cult following in the United States where major acts like Nelson and Linda Ronstadt spoke glowingly of his music.

Crow is one of the biggest concert draws in the United States.

She broke through commercially in 1993 with her Tuesday Night Music Club album, a multi-Grammy winner which spawned the hit song, All I Wanna Do. James Blunt was the find of the music world in 2005 with his debut album Back to Bedlam which contained the international hit, You're Beautiful.

( L - R ) Sheryl Crow, James Blunt