W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

The Mighty Rootsmen – Self Titled (Bulletproof Recording Company)

When I stumbled upon this album, I immediately had to do some serious digging to make sure that this wasn’t some AI generated pretend material. But after a decent amount of searching it does appear that this recording is in fact the real thing. Evidently back in 2009, Los Angeles based producer, Ralph Sall, had a ingenious idea to put together a sort of Jamaican version of the Travelling Wilburys (only in this case the group would sing and record cover versions of classic songs mostly from the 1970’s). Ultimately, he would manage to bring Toots Hibbert, Mykal Rose, Gregory Issacs, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespear into Jamaica’s Anchor Studios in 2010 for the project. In addition Mike Campbell (The Heartbreakers), Steve Miller and Cat Coore (Third World) would fill out the band. As the project moved along, reggae crooner Luciano would join in as well when Issac’s health deteriorated to the point that he could no longer participate.

Ultimately the sessions would result in quite a smattering of reggae reiterpretations of classic American hits from the 1970 many of which would probably fall into the easy listening, AOR genres of songs at this point in time. Unfortunately, the project and recordings slipped through the cracks and never saw the light of day until last Friday when 10 of the session’s tracks were at last released on Bulletproof Recordings.

Of course Jamaican reggae has a strong tradition of re-imagining hits from the U.S into soulful grooves and this release certainly extends that very same tradition. With tunes which were originally hits for the likes of Tom Petty, Steve Miller, Doby Gray, and The Eagles, to name a few, what makes this collection even more special is that over the course of the 15 years since these sessions took place, so many of the participants are no longer with us. Toots Hibbert, who plays a significant role here along with Gregory Isaacs, and Robbie Shakespear are no longer part of this, to quote another Shakespear, mortal coil and to get to hear them breath such groovy vibes into these songs is truly a refreshing breath of irie JA fresh air…JAH MAN!