Presse - Various - Cree Records Doing Our Thing - More Soul From Jamdown - Blues & Rhythm, November 2017

DOING OUR THING: More Soul From Jamdown 1970-1982 Cree CCD 1206 (42:19) How you define this CO depends on how you listen to it. A reggae album? Well, that reggae rhythm chop Is prominent on atl the tracks. A soul set? Every tracks has at the least a strong connection with American soul music. Or a set that shows the inspiration Jamaican musicians have taken from the mainland's Nib chart hits (and misses) of the 1960s and 1970s. In truth of course it is a bit of all three Dave Barker's trio of tracks that open the set comprise a very soulfully sung cover of Garnett Mimms & The Enchanters' 1964 hit 'A Quiet Place', disguised as 'Johnny Dollar'. He then reprises the same rhythm track to showcase his 'dee-jay' skills (meaning, in Jamaican terms, that he talks/ shouts over the track), though Dave quickly references James Brown w.th a statement about h's 'record machine'. Closing out his contribution is 'Life Of A Millionaire'. a retread of the venerable 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out', though in this case drawing on Sam Cooke. These three provide a neat encapsulation of what a lot of this album is about. Other relatively straight covers of soul material (usually meaning they are given a reggae beat and sometimes an island accent) are Glen Adams with Isaac Hayes' Do Your Thing', BB Seaton with The Persuaders"Thin Line Between Love & Hate', and Richard Ace with Ben E. King's 'It's A Supernatural Thing'. Hortense Ellis is the sole female singer here — It might be Interesting to compare the amount of soul material sung by females around this time with the men's output — and she has a fine version of Johnnie Taylor's 1967 Stax hit 'Ain't That Lovin' You (For More Reasons Than One)'.