Herbs

Herbs emerged as a pioneering Pacific reggae outfit hailing from New Zealand, issuing their first recordings in 1981 and reaching their commercial height in the second half of that decade. The ensemble was assembled in 1979 around Dilworth Karaka on vocals and guitar, Morrie Watene on vocals and saxophone, Tama Lundon on vocals and keyboards, Thom Nepia on vocals and percussion, Tama Renata on vocals and guitar, Ryan Monga on drums, and Ryan Monga, Jr. on bass. Repeated shifts in membership occurred over the years, leaving Karaka as the sole unchanging participant. Their initial release arrived in 1981 as the six-track mini-album What’s Be Happen? on the Warrior imprint. One year afterward the group notched their earliest chart success via the anti-nuclear protest track “French Letter,” which climbed close to the upper reaches of the New Zealand singles survey. That number appeared on the band’s first full-length effort, Light of the Pacific, issued in 1983. Additional long-players from the 1980s comprised Long Ago in 1984 and the widely embraced Sensitive to a Smile in 1987, the latter spawning the singles “Sensitive to a Smile,” “Rust in Dust,” “Listen,” and “No Nukes (The Second Letter).” The act’s biggest commercial breakthrough occurred in 1986 through “Slice of Heaven,” a duet with New Zealand singer/songwriter Dave Dobbyn that ascended to the summit of the charts in both Australia and New Zealand. Another joint success followed in 1989 when the band joined New Zealand singer/songwriter Tim Finn on the Top Ten single “Parihaka.” Activity dwindled during the 1990s, yielding only the album Homegrown in 1990, the retrospective collection 13 Years of Herbs in 1993, and the standalone Top Ten release “French Letter ’95” in 1995. Later anthologies encompassed Listen: The Very Best of Herbs in 2002 and Lights of the Pacific: The Very Best of Herbs in 2008.