Nope, Bob Marley did not have a monopoly on raunchy reggae music, dreadlocked Italian’s do some pretty mean reggae too. Take the Bari-based band Rhomanife, for example. I think the pronunciation of the band’s name is ‘Roman-ife’, but would be happy to be corrected.
Formed by childhood friends, Gianni Somma and Pino Di Taranto, Rhomanife have been showing off Apulian roots culture in Italy and abroad via their own brand of reggae music since 1985.

Today, Rhomanife have grown into a 10-member roots reggae style band and full scale cultural project with their own recording studio, and hand-made sound system. Supported by a crew of friends and music lovers, it sounds as if they are a musical cultural experience!
I guess you’d now like to sample some of Rhomanife’s reggae music, so here goes. First up, and sung in English, is:
Pray Now
[youtube width=”556″ height=”469″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8QfD5FIJjI[/youtube]

Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
If you liked that, here’s another one for you – the band’s first single, along with a video filmed on the streets and beaches of Bari. Don’t worry about bothering to try to pronounce the name, just pump up that bass and hit the play button:
Sciamaninne
[youtube width=”556″ height=”469″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La-EX44AE7Q[/youtube]
Nice tight sound!
You can find out lots more about Rhomanife on their website – which is in English.
You can also book the band for your very own, biggish, event – remember this is a 10 piece band! To ask about this, email the band here: rhomanife(at)gmail(dot)com or give them a call on +39 338 991 2968
I’d say they’d make a pretty memorable wedding band, for example 😉