Matisyahu returns to the Finger Lakes with new resolve 

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Reggae artist Matisyahu — who returns to Canandaigua’s Lincoln Hill Farms for a show on August 23 in support of the new acoustic version of his “Hold the Fire” EP — is very familiar to Rochester and Finger Lakes audiences. But when he bounded onto the national music scene in the mid-2000s, he was truly a surprise, one-of-a-kind figure: a singer-rapper who was also a practicing Hasidic Jew, having lived and studied in the Chabad-Lubavitch community in Brooklyn.

With a traditional black fedora on his head which framed his full beard and ringlets, and the tzitzit, or “fringes” of his prayer shawl, showing underneath his coat and white shirt, his physical appearance was a jarring signifier that this was something different.


However gimmicky his performance appeared on the surface, Matisyahu’s talent and charisma as a musician was undeniable. His 2006 “Live at Stubb’s” album, and the subsequent studio record “Youth,” “Light” and “Spark Seeker” all reached No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. Reggae chart, the latest of those albums being released in 2012.

By then, however, Matisyahu drastically changed his appearance.

“I needed to get beyond who I thought I was so strongly for such a strong period of time," he told the Wall Street Journal that year.

His spiritual journey was always characterized by an “obsessive” search for God.

“You've discovered different ways of what God could be, or what God could mean, and you're on this journey, right?” he said. “But at some point, I started to realize If I was God, I would kind of want everyone to just leave me the fuck alone.”

These days, the artist — who was born Matthew Paul Miller — looks more like a silver-haired surfer than a member of an observant religious sect, but that doesn’t mean his faith or Jewish identity has wavered. His connection to Judaism has only strengthened recently, due in part to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel at a music festival.

Matisyahu recalled being prompted at a recent workshop to ask himself who he was.

“And the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘I am Jewish’ — before an artist, before a father, before a son,” he said. “I thought that was kind of an interesting moment for me, that it's come back. Before October 7, I don't know that that would have been the first thing on my list.”

Matisyahu’s music is not and has never been political. A message of peace, perhaps best exemplified in the song “One Day,” is a central focus of his songs. But as the Israel-Hamas War has unfolded, Matisyahu has been clear in his belief in the importance of a Jewish homeland, and has visited and performed for Israeli troops. Earlier this year, he found himself embroiled in controversy when the Rialto Theatre in Tuscon, Arizona promptly canceled his show there under threat of pro-Palestinian protests.



Matisyahu's upcoming Canandaigua show marks his third consecutive year playing at Lincoln Hill Farms. For Jon Willis, a concert booker who manages music events at the pastoral spot, the connection between artist and venue makes sense.

“Back when I was the only one booking here for the farm, I was a fan of Matisyahu, enjoyed what he did, enjoyed how he’s reinvented himself multiple times and keeps trying to stay relevant," Willis said. "It was just something that I thought would be a good fit.”

The Jewish musician says his purpose as an artist has come full-circle.

“People would see and say, like, ‘Wow, it's okay to be Jewish, or it's cool,’” he said of his early career. “And that was something that was important to people, [but] never really that important to me. But now it's like, ‘Okay, now I want to feed people.’ I want to feed people this ancient connection that they have, this powerful truth that they have to them.”

Matisyahu returns to Lincoln Hill Farms on Friday, August 23, with Distant Cousins playing in support. Doors at 5 p.m.; music at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $14.13. lincolnhillfarms.com

Daniel J. Kushner is an arts writer for CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].