There are few bands whose name is a direct reference to France's longest river. The story of The Ligerians ─ the French word 'Ligérien' refers to the people living along the banks of the river Loire ─ began in Tours in 2010.

The band’s five musicians set up Soul Nurse Records studio before working with Rod Anton, a Portuguese-speaking singer with a crystal-clear voice, on the Reasonin' album (2012). This was their first album to make a name for itself ─ not least because of its prestigious collaborations with the late Vaughn Benjamin (Akae Beka, ex-Midnite) and Jamaican legends such as Max Romeo and the fabled vocal trio The Congos. Reasonin' was followed by Wevolution (2014) and Ubatuba (2016), again with Rod Anton, sealing a triptych testifying to the creativity of the Tours-based band.

As the history of music is made up of encounters, The Ligerians have since then teamed up with Joe Pilgrim, an experienced, charismatic Franco-Beninese artist and active member of Dub Addict. Together, they produced Intuitions(2015), a concept album divided into four chapters whose message points the finger at the blindness of Western civilization perverted by the power of money. This was followed by an EP, Step Out (2017), and its standout track 'Migrants', a vibrant sounding board for a most tragic topical issue. Filmed in the alleyways of the Calais Jungle ─ a symbol of the failure of European migration policies ─ the video shows our brothers and sisters in humanity born, if we were to believe the powerful of this world, on the wrong side of the Mediterranean Sea.

Relentlessly socially and politically committed, The Ligerians went on seeking such collaborations. They met Chezidek in 2018 through the Irie Ites label. Two years later, the St. Ann's Bay native and the Tours-based band released Timeless(2020), a resolutely enlightened and humanist album, far removed from the ambient slackness. Irie Ites then invited The Ligerians to accompany other Jamaican artists on stage, including Linval Thompson, Glen Washington and Trinity, as well as in the studio for Soul Nurse Records productions.

From Protoje to Tiken Jah Fakoly, Marcus Gad to Nai-Jah, not forgetting Alpha Steppa and, more recently, Laurent 'Tippy' Alfred (I Grade Records), The Ligerians have multiplied projects to the point of becoming a benchmark in today's Roots Reggae scene. They not only work with internationally renowned contemporary artists, but are also stimulating and promoting the talents of tomorrow like Nadia McAnuff, the daughter of Winston 'Electric Dread' McAnuff, with whom they cut a first EP in 2022 before the much expected upcoming release of the Shelter from the Storm album.   

"Each One Teach One" is a phrase that could sum up The Ligerians's career history, just like a river that irrigates every area of a land, forgetting no one along the way.