AMERICAN reggae archivist Roger Steffens will embark on a two-month tour of the United States and Canada as opening act for the Wailers Band's 'Survival Revival'.

Steffens will lecture and provide video presentations on Bob Marley's Survival album and the history of Jamaican pop music.

The tour starts Tuesday in Detroit.

"I will do a 45-minute set in which I will talk about the album's significance in Bob's work, the meaning of its lyrics, show photographs that I took while touring with Bob on the original Survival tour in California in 1979, and tell anecdotes about Bob's continuing influence in the world today," Steffens told the Jamaica Observer by e-mail.

"So far, we have 18 shows booked together from Boston to Vancouver, including a date at the newly-restored Howard Theater in Washington DC," he added.

Released by Island Records in 1979, Survival was Marley's ode to freedom fighters in Africa. He performed on the continent in 1980.

The current Wailers band is led by bass player Aston 'Family Man' Barrett, who played on Survival and toured with Marley to support the album.

Marley died in May 1981 at age 36.

The other Wailers members are Koolant Brown on lead vocals, Keith Sterling (keyboards), Drummie Zeb (drums), Audley Chisholm (rhythm guitar), and Cegee Victory on background vocals.

The 70-year-old Steffens is world-famous for his reggae archives which occupy six rooms of his home in Los Angeles.