Jack Ruby was one of those producers that I wish had produced much more music. I, as with many, discovered him through the sounds of Burning Spear's crucial album Marcus Garvey. Over time I came across more tunes from him and eventually Heartbeat put out a two piece set featuring his productions.

This show features a variety of his productions including popular artists like Ken Boothe, the Heptones, and the Gaylads as well as obscure groups like the incredible Skulls.

This show was mixed soon after Justin Hinds of the Dominoes passed away. He also did some work with Ruby over the years and is featured in the second half of the show.

This show was inspired by the sounds of the man Joe Gibbs, alongside Mr. Errol T, who was his partner-in-crime. I basically was riding some of the riddims that Joe Gibbs, and his band known as the Professionals, created and recreated.

This was actually my first mix featuring the sounds of Joe Gibbs & Errol Thompson. Gibbs was known fort touching riddims originally recorded by other producers, and this show showcases that material.

This show was put together just after Joe Gibbs passed away on February 21st, 2008. It covers material not featured on the two Joe Gibbs shows I had done previously. You'll hear a number of big tunes that he and Errol Thompson produced together, featuring some of the most popular riddims.

Respects to the man Joel Gibson.

Tribute to the man called Joe Gibbs! Respect and rest in peace.

For this show, I was focusing on the early productions of Joe Gibbs, in his full rocksteady glory. Gibbs got his start with an electronics repair shop, and worked a bit for producer Ken Lack. Eventually he set up his own two track studio and had Lee Perry on the boards. Soon afterward in 1967, he started his own label "Amalgamated". Gibbs' work continued for the next year with Perry, who soon broke camp and was replaced by Niney.

One of Gibbs' first big hits, "Hold Them" by Roy Shirley is heard in this mix alongside an alternative version by Ken Boothe and a DJ cut from I Roy. There's also a number of other prime rocksteady grooves showcased throughout this show, including tunes from Errol Dunkley, Nicky Thomas, The Reggae Boys, The Inspirations and Gibbs studio band at the time known as the Destroyers or Amalgamated All Stars.

Peter Tosh also recorded some tunes with Gibbs that are featured on this set. They include "Arise Black Man", "Maga Dog", and "Dem Have Fe Get A Beatin." You'll also hear a nice run on Errol Dunkley's "You're Gonna Need Me" that was later redone by Rupie Edwards.

Horace Andy, born Horace Hinds, was the younger cousin of Justin Hinds, who made big moves with the Dominoes beginning in the ska days. Horace Andy got his name after Coxsone suggested he do something to obscure his connections to his cousin. Instead he took on the surname of the popular Bob Andy.

Horace started his thing by connecting with Phil Pratt, but made his name with Coxsone Dodd with the tune "Skylarking" featured first in this set. Alongside his classic work with Dodd stands the tracks produced by Bunny Lee with their dub extravaganzas courtesy of King Tubby. Both producers make their presence felt here, along with tracks from other producers such as Phil Pratt. This sound is the epitome of King Tubby's magic. You don't get much more serious than this.

I was tempted to update the mixes in this show from 2002 in a 2008 style. I've collected many more tracks on some of these crucial riddims since the time I mixed this show, but I decided to let it be in the way it was recorded. Enjoy the mix...

This show follows up where the first one left off. In the first set, I focused on Horace Andy's biggest tunes with Coxsone Dodd and Bunny Lee. In this set, I broaden the horizons a bit more, covering work from other producers such as Niney, Derrick Harriot, Herman Chin-Loy, Everton Dasilva and others. Its a nice three hour mix stretching out a lot of the other tunes I wanted to cover...

There's not much more that I can add to the story of the Wailers. They've become an iconic force in the sound of the modern world. Enjoy this journey through this crucial music.

Most of the time, I avoid playing the Wailers. Their work is so well known that many of their popular tunes feel overplayed. For these shows, I've tried to collect the unique and special tunes that have grabbed me over the years. I hope you enjoy.

This is the most recent mix of the four part series. After deciding to do another Wailers set at the last minute, I went through the other three mixes and excluded everything I've already played. Thinking this would limit my options, I was surprised to be staring at another 1000 songs. Since I was doing this all last minute, I printed out the 18 pages of songs that remained and took the list to the station to select from. Unfortunately, my primary recording had errors so this recording is off of the sub-par recorder in the studios of WHPK. In any case, it turned out to be an enjoyable mix and a nice accompaniment to the other mixes.

This was my first take on the Wailers theme. There's some nice tunes, a few rarities and some of my favorite tracks from Peter, Bunny and Bob...

Peter Tosh, born as Winston Hubert McIntosh, was most well known for his role in the Wailers, but also had a long successful solo career. Tosh had an edge to him that the other Wailers did not, and a blunt honesty that chased out the spirits of babylon.

Tosh was a wordsmith, and loved to play with the "word sound" of language, transforming words to emphasize or align with their true meanings. This intelligence came out in his tough and direct lyrics.

This set was a chance to give a proper salute to this soldier and mystic. Included are some of my favorite Tosh tracks across the years.

Dennis Emmanuel Brown, one of the most classic and well respected artists of reggae music. The thing about Dennis' music is that he started with quality music for Prince Buster and Coxsone Dodd and continued to create high quality music for decades. The only artists that might compare with him is Gregory Isaacs.

Dennis was born on Orange Street, one of the musical hubs of Kingston. He first hit big with Coxsone Dodd on a re-recording of the Van Dyke's "No Man is an Island" and he later went on to record an album with Dodd.

As with any prolific and talented singer, Dennis worked with the spectrum of Jamaican Producers... Derrick Harriot, Joe Gibbs, Niney, Coxsone Dodd, Prince Buster, Clive Chin, Herman Chin Loy, and others. This show collects some of those works not recorded with Niney, starting with some of the early but not earliest tunes, then on to some Studio One material, some of his own productions and then on to some of his later hits.

Dennis Brown, the Crown Prince of Reggae.

This show was the first focus show I did on Dennis Brown back in 2002. It gets into some of the Niney era featured on the previous podcast, but also gets in to some tracks produced by Phil Pratt, Little Roy and Derrick Harriot along with some of Dennis Brown's self productions. There's a few nice riddim rides included to put it all in context.

This show is sort of a continuation of the Niney theme, but this time dealing heavily with the tunes that Niney did with Dennis Brown. Niney first ran into Dennis while working at Joe Gibbs' studio around 1972. The two hit it off and Dennis went on to work exclusively with Niney for two years between 73 and 75. During that time, they created a slew of classics.

This show features many of the top tunes from that union, as well as a few Niney gems not covered on the previous Niney episode.

Winston Holness, aka George Boswell, aka Niney the Observer, got his nickname from the missing digit on his hand. He started off his music career working with producer Bunny Lee. At the same time, he was moonlighting at Joe Gibbs' studio. When Lee Perry, who was working for Gibbs at the time, got fed up and quit the employ of Joe Gibbs, it was Niney that stepped into the role of engineer and producer in the studio. (These were the days before Errol Thompson stoked the fires of Gibbs studio.)

Niney has an interesting place in the reggae sound scape, with his early involvement in the Bunny Lee sound, to his role in the Gibbs output and to his connections socially and aurally to Lee Perry. Perry and Niney worked together at times and the the effect can be heard in both of their output.

On this show, I worked through a variety of Niney material for the first time. We start off with the blazing rocker from I Roy, "Roots Man." Then into a quick mix on the "Smiling Face" riddim, before getting into the King of Babylon tune that had Junior Byles on the vocal cut. Rasta No Pickpocket came next, followed by some Gregory - I Roy connects.

Other than the first tune in the mix, there are many other personal Niney including the Delroy cut of "My Baby Is Gone" with its simmering trombone line, two nice tunes from the obscure Sang Hugh, the anthemic horns cut "Zimbabwe" along with the beautiful "Wipe Away" and its ethereal dub version.

Alvin Ranglin productions part 1. Alvin Ranglin, also known as "GG", got into the music business through an electronics repair shop. Some of his early productions were credited to "Flowers & Alvin", Flowers being vocalist Emmanuel Folwers along with Ranglin himself. He first had a hit with the GG All Stars with a cut called "Man From Carolina."

Alvin Ranglin productions part 2. The nickname GG apparently came from the combination of Alvin's sister's name and his ex-girlfriend, both named Gloria. It was also the name he gave his sounds system back in 1965, that later went on to be known as GG's Discotech.

My first introduction to GG probably came with the tracks he produced for Gregory Isaacs. He also did some good work with other artists such as Maytones, Ethiopians, Starlights, Freddie McKay, I Roy, and Lone Ranger.

On these two shows, you get to hear a variety of the early cuts GG put together, along with some of the later works he recorded at Channel One and GG's Studio.

Augustus Pablo, aka Horace Swaby was born in 1954 in St. Andrews. In grade school, he hung out with Clive Chin, whose father Vincent Chin was the owner of Randy's studio and record shop. Swaby and his brother Douglas got into the music biz by running a sound called Rockers. Swaby's first musical stab in 1970 was with Leslie Kong's cousin, Herman Chin Loy, who had founded the Aquarius record label and shop a year earlier. The two got the ball rolling buy cutting the track "Iggy Iggy" which can be heard towards the end of this show.

Augustus Pablo was a name used by Herman Chin Loy for the artists featured on several keyboard-focused tunes that he put out, including tunes by Glen Adams. After recording "East of the River Nile" with Adams and Swaby, the name permanently stuck with Swaby.

In this show, we focus on these early journeys of Augustus Pablo as he moves from producer to producer, recording melodica versions on several strong riddims. After his work with Aquarius, Pablo went on to work with Clive Chin at Randy's, recording several top knotch tunes which get a showcase early on in the show. This show also sees him recording with Keith Hudson, Bunny Lee, Joe Gibbs, Derrick Harriot, Jimmy Radway, Enos Mcleod, Alvin Ranglin, and others such as Leonard Chin (uncle of Vincent Chin.)

This is the first of a four part series, so open your ears and see just where Augustus Pablo is trying to take you on this little riddim ride.

After Augustus Pablo established himself by playing melodica and keyboards on other producers' tracks, he and his brother established the Rockers label, named after the sound system they ran together. Pablo began crafting his own tracks and recording a variety of vocalists alongside his dub and melodica versions on these tunes.

This show gets in to some of this core of the classic work that Pablo created. We start off with his first big splash, Java, which he created with Clive Chin at Randy's studio. We move on to "East of the River Nile" a track originally done with Herman Chin Loy and later recreated for an album of the same name. After this we drop into two massive cuts with Jacob Miller on the vocals, "Baby I Love You So" and "False Rasta." Each riddim gets its time to run so we can hear the various versions including alternative vocal takes from Johnny Clarke on both riddims. The remainder of the show continue this thread of Pablo's mid-seventies productions that have the heavy effect of King Tubby throughout the versions. Wrapping it up we have another example of one of Pablo's re-versioning of Studio One originals with "A House Is Not A Home."

Stay tuned for part three focusing more on the later 70s output of Pablo as he produced other vocalists.

After Augustus Pablo got underway with his Rockers label, he went on to produce tracks for a variety of other vocalists as the 70s turned into the 80s. This show features the work he did with such artists as Delroy Williams, Norris Reid, Ricky Grant and the trio Tetrack. There are also appearances by Earl Sixteen, Freddie McKay, Earl Zero and DJs like Jah Bull and Big Youth. There are of course plenty of versions featuring Pablo on melodica along the way...

Hugh Mundell, a protoge of Augustus Pablo, actually got his start with Joe Gibbs with a single that has yet to be released. Eventually he made his way to Pablo's soundsystem as a DJ. (You can hear some of his DJ work here under the name Jah Levi.) His first album with Pablo, while he was still a teenager, was the ground breaking "Africa Must Be Free by 1983."

After his work with Pablo he went on to record with producers Prince Jammy and Henry "Junjo" Lawes before his tragic death in 1983.

This is another step towards the upcoming series featuring Augustus Pablo...

Junior Delgado, aka Juks, started off with a group called Time Unlimited recording for Lee Perry, Rupie Edwards, Tommy Cowan and ending up with Bunny Lee. Delgado split from the group and went on to record with Niney, Joe Gibbs, Prince Jammy and Augustus Pablo.

This show runs through a range of Delgado cuts, starting with strong compositions for Pablo and Perry. Prince Jammy makes himself known as well with some of the work with Juks for Dennis Brown's DEB imprint.

This show is the opening shot in a series underway featuring the sounds of Augustus Pablo. This set is more peripheral to that theme, but the Pablo cuts featured in this set should give you a ears towards what's coming...

Your comments are appreciated, as always.

Slim Smith, aka Keith Smith, was a vocalist with the classic group called the Techniques and later the Uniques. He got his start with Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, then went on to work with Duke Reid, and later Bunny Lee as a part of the Uniques with Jimmy Riley and Lloyd Charmers.

Slim Smith died a tragic death in 1973, leaving behind a legacy that has been embraced by countless Jamaican musicians.

Part 2 of 3. These last two parts of this Slim Smith theme feature the many versions of tracks that Slim Smith sang early versions of. Some of these tunes had original versions by Smith, others were based on rhythms he covered of classic American groups like the Impressions.

This set features such big tunes as: I'll Never Let You Go, Give Me A Love, Rougher Yet, and others.

Part 3 of 3. Getting into the last set, we hear the continuation of the riddim run, featuring such tunes as People Get Ready, My Conversation and You Don't Care / Barbwire.

This show focuses on the sounds of Barrington Levy. The mix developed out of a earlier scattered set featuring the sounds of Scientist.

Scientist has really been the underlying theme and inspiration for these last five podcasts. Many of the dubs in the Linval Thompson set, several of the Viceroys cuts and most of the dubs in this Levy show were featuring the work of this mixing master.

For this show I start off with a Jah Thomas produced stormer call Tribute to Moa Ambessa. Then into a Gibbs delicacy, before opening up into a mix featuring dubs with Scientist and Jammy at the controls.

The era of dub featured on this show was one of my first introductions to dub. It features the Roots Radics band including drummer Santa Davis and bassie Flabba Holt. I had always wondered who was singing the original vocals and eventually I came across more of these Barrington Levy takes on these riddims.

For comparison's sake, you can also check out a Barrington Levy special from BigMikeyDread:
http://bigmikeydread.podomatic.com/entry/2007-09-28T17_39_08-07_00

The Viceroys was composed of Wesley Tinglin, Daniel Bernard and Bunny Gayle, who was later replaced by Neville Ingram. The Viceroys make a good follow up to the recent Linval Thompson podcasts, since some of their later work was produced by Linval Thompson. Since I prefer their earlier work, you'll hear a focus on those sounds.

This was my first show featuring the sounds of Linval Thompson. On this show I focused mostly on the scorchers he sang on for producer Bunny Lee.

For a great interview of Linval Thompson, see:
http://www.reggae-vibes.com/concert/linthompson/linthompson.htm

This was my second go at the sounds of Linval Thompson. For this set, I focused on the tracks that Linval sang on that I hadn't touched on my first exploration of his work, which led to more of an emphasis on the tracks he produced and sang on in the late 70s and early 80s.

This third of three shows focuses on the productions of Linval Thomspon featuring other singers and DJs.

Sugar Minott, born Lincoln Barrington Minott, was a singer and producer known for his sweet voice. He got his start working as a selector in the dance before singing. His last track with the group African Brothers was with Coxsone Dodd, and this experience paved the way for further work at Studio One.

Sugar's relicks on Studio One riddims was his claim to fame and one of the early seeds of the change into dancehall that came in the 80s. His sound after Studio One progressed with the albums Ghetto-ology and Black Roots. As the 80s got underway, he shifted into more of a lover's rock sound.

This show showcases a lot of the other top tunes not included on the African Brothers show. Enjoy!

The African Brothers was a group comprised of Sugar Minott, Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard. This show features the sounds of the group, along with solo efforts from Minott and Tuff.

For more information on the African Brothers, see: http://www.easystar.com/africanbrothers.html

Duke Reid was another of the pioneering producers of Jamaican music. He got his start early on importing tunes and running a sound system before moving on to producing tunes in the days of jump blues and ska. He owed a shop with his wife and ran a studio upstairs called Treasure Isle.

Duke Reid was part of a critical turn in the sound of the island, the transition from rollicking ska to the sweltering sounds of rocksteady. This show focuses on that sound and features some of the top tunes of the era coming from that little shop on Bond Street.

Over on this little message board, my man Mick Sleeper sent a shot straight in my direction. I couldn't resist stepping up to such a challenge.

So, for your musical pleasure, I present the sounds of producer Glen Brown in extended mix style. Though he was not prolific, Glen Brown crafted deadly riddims and put them to good use with the help of King Tubby. On this show, recorded almost five years ago now, I expose some of his best tunes. His work is well documented on albums put out on the Blood & Fire and Hot Pot labels, so if you're feeling these sounds, check there first.

On the other side of this likkle sound clash is our spar, Dr Mick Sleeper of upsetter.net. Though he is well known and loved world round, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. I'll let you the listener decide. For Dr. Sleeper's effort, please check out his podcast featuring Glen Brown... (http://sleeper.podomatic.com)

Take a listen for yourself and register your thoughts by posting a comment!!!