Nothin' Sez Somethin': The Godfather Delivers Rivers of Dub

31 May 2015

The Godfather Delivers Rivers of Dub

Over the Memorial Day weekend I was involved in a major Dubathon musick swap with some friends from Glass Cow & Eat A Peach. It was a massive undertaking & some heavyweight Jamaican roots music was traversing the globe.

I am mostly the source for the Dub side of things, as I am not a huge fan of more mainstream reggae. I tend to like the riddim punched up to 11 & all the studio tricks the Dub royalty of Kings & Princes can lay on me, with the vocal tracks pared down to just another facet of instrumentation.

However, some of the material that was requested & swapped was more traditional reggae. As I listened to a vast variety of JA styles: roots; dancehall; rocksteady; Dub; & reggae, I began to enjoy some of the vocal stylings of certain artists. Although Prince Far I has a gruff vocal style, I have always liked his reggae as well as his Dub outings. Some of the smoother voices I was hearing started to resonate with me now, perhaps from the heavy bombardment. Derrick Harriott & Don Carlos particularly caressed my ears & touched my soul.

Sweet-voiced vocalist Don Carlos (born Euvin Spencer) was one of the original trio of singers with the great Black Uhuru along with his two friends, Rudolph 'Garth' Dennis & Derrick 'Duckie' Simpson. They were lifelong friends from the Waterhouse district of western Kingston, Jamaica. Many talented Jamaican musick artists such as King Tubby, Junior Reid, & Prince Jammy were also from this area.

I discovered Dub releases by both Derrick Harriott & the Crystalites (Scrub-a-Dub), & Don Carlos which I have really come to enjoy. This one has, to my way of thinking, just the right amount of vocals with a heavy dose of that fabulous mash-it-up Bunny Lee stylee. Listen & decide for yourself…