The smooth guitar riffs and reggae bass beats of Live at Stubb’s fill the car as soon as you pop the CD into the stereo.

But who is the man behind that smooth, powerful voice?

Matthew Miller, who goes by his Hebrew name, Matisyahu, is not your average reggae singer. His music and style are greatly influenced by his religion.

Matisyahu became interested in Judaism after he dropped out of high school and went on a camping trip in Colorado, where he claims to have found God. After that he later became very involved with a temple in New York known for a more relaxed environment and joyous, upbeat singing [according to his website http://www.hasidicreggae.com]. He took this religious influence together with his laid-back style of reggae to create his own new style of music.

As a Lubavitch Hasidic Jew, Matisyahu uses his religious lifestyle as means for inspiration and for his music.

But don’t think that Matisyahu’s music is stiff sounding just because he happens to wear the traditional Hasidic Jewish clothing and sports payos, the locks of curls many Hasidic Jewish men have.

Matisyahu’s CD contains upbeat songs that are similar to reggae rap or reggae hip-hop, yet combined with the at times almost ska sounding solos of the guitar. He toured with the band Phish before he became a solo reggae artist, so some songs have a bit of a rock-sounding quality. There is even a track labeled Beat Box where Matisyahu shows off his rhythmic vocal skills. Yet the CD also contains the mellower, laid-back type of reggae sounds along with Matisyahu’s soothing vocals.

The song Chop ‘Em Down is particularly ska sounding with its jumpy guitar part and upbeat vocals. The song also tells the story of Moses, with a reggae singing style accent when Matisyahu repeatedly sings “Chop ’em down, chop ’em down” in the chorus.

Matisyahu’s band is also talented. The song Fire and Heights is an all-instrumental song. The beginning starts out with a guitar solo with the bass and drums playing lightly in the background until the middle of the song, where the guitarist begins to play almost frantically fast while the drummer begins to beat faster and faster. The guitarist and drummer suddenly stop and the quiet sound of the bass increases into a bass solo. The song ends with another guitar solo only with the use of a “wah-wah” pedal, which can be used with a guitar to create a more vocal sounding effect.

While Matisyahu himself is very different from all the other reggae singers out there, the lyrics of his songs also have a new and diverse message thanks to the influence of Judaism.

In Matisyahu’s song, King Without A Crown, he sings, “Strip away the layers and reveal your soul/ Got to give yourself up and then you become whole/ You’re a slave to yourself and you don’t even know/ You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow/ If you’re trying to stay high then you’re bound to stay low/ You want God but you can’t deflate you ego/ If you’re already up there then there’s nowhere to go”. Relating life to religion, Matisyahu sings about finding oneself through Judaism and the struggles that come with trying to keep faith in God.

Although his songs are mainly in English, every now and then you can pick out a couple of words in either Hebrew or Yiddish, such as in the song Aish Tamid.

So if you hear the beats of a reggae tune with the sound of a male voice holding out a long, powerful note, do not be misled. The owner behind that voice could be Matisyahu instead of Bob Marley.