Reggae on the Road : Southwest Samples the Mighty Diamonds, Playing Today at UCI

San Antonio, Santa Fe, Tucson--hardly cities perceived as hotbeds of reggae action. But they have been the stops leading up to an appearance today by the Mighty Diamonds in Orange County, where they’ll headline a seven-hour reggae festival at UC Irvine. What’s a travelin’ band from Jamaica doing in places like those?

“I think they need more reggae down in this part of the country,” ventured Donald (Tabby) Shaw, the band’s lead singer, from a phone at Club West in Santa Fe. “They’re ready for it.”

Shaw and his band mates, Lloyd (Judge) Ferguson and Fitzroy (Bunny) Simpson, are in the midst of a 12-week U.S. tour, their first in two years. Together since 1969, the Mighty Diamonds are one of the vocal trios that bloomed during reggae’s early-’70s heyday. They have survived intact.

Their recent music, as heard on such albums as last year’s “The Real Enemy,” veers between the sweet, soul-inspired harmonies for which they were noted in the early years and tougher-edged anthems such as “Mr. Botha” (about apartheid), “Free Africa” and “Chant Down War.”

“We’re singing freedom music,” Shaw said. “People are in captivity and need to be free.”

Audiences on the current tour have been mixed, Shaw said, between longtime followers and new fans, perhaps turned onto reggae by the recent success of Ziggy Marley. “It’s started building up again,” Shaw said of reggae’s popularity in the United States.

The popularity of reggae and the Diamonds has remained steady in England and Europe, where the group heads after its U.S. tour. Then, it’s off to Africa for the first time for dates in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. “We’re looking forward to that,” Shaw said. A new album, “Ready for the World,” will be the first release on the group’s own label, Shamer Records.

UC Irvine’s annual spring Reggaefest will be held today from noon to 7 p.m. on the Mesa Court Lawn at the corner of Campus and University drives. Along with the Mighty Diamonds, featured performers will include Crucial DBS, the Afro-Caribbean Dancers and the Cardiff Reefers. Food and crafts will be on sale. Tickets: $2 for students, $6 general, available at the Bren Center box office and Ticketron. Information: (714) 856-5000.