John Brown’s Body: An American Reggae Band Digging Roots in Farm Country :: Essays Papers

John Browns Body An American Reggae skirt Digging Roots in Farm CountryThe surrounding landscape yields rolling hills, beautiful gorges with waterfalls that leave your mouth gaping in awe, some of the earths finest wineries, and farmland as far as the eye can see. Rooted in Ithaca, a small artsy community in upstate bleak Yorks Finger Lakes region, comes a sound so cultural, so mystical, and so natural. Amongst a slew of great local musicians comes John Browns Body, a roots reggae sound that captivates audiences, and spills the global message of thanks and praises. Before we can truly understand the roots of an American-based reggae band that carries a Jamaican sound and universal philosophy, we must first get to the roots of reggae music in United States from the beginning.The origins of roots sounds in the U.S. came primarily from Jamaican communities that were set up in major cities such as New York, Washington D.C., and Miami. New York City was home of the first reggae cente red memorializeing studio was established. The credit for such a catchment basin establishment would have to go to Lloyd Bullwackie Barnes, a singer who recorded with Prince Buster in the early 1960s. The recording business started out as a compact with Munchie Jackson. Its location was at 4731 White Plains Road in the Bronx. By the mid 1970s, Barnes was running the studio alone, using his own session band, Reckless Breed. He was besides recording Jamaican singers that were local to the area, including names like Wayne Jarrett. Barnes also produced recordings of Jamaican singers visiting the states, including such artists as Sugar Minott and Horace Andy. During this same time period, Barnes was also able-bodied to record a string of dub albums as well. Bullwackie was the only U.S. studio to put out significant reggae sound prior to the 1980s (Barrow 1997). HC & F Studios was exposed up in the 1980s on Long Island and was run solely by Phillip Smart who had worked in Jamaica wi th the great King Tubby. Smart was able to record in his studio, sounds that would eventually make it into the dancehalls of Jamaica. Dirtsmans Hot This Year is an example of the recording that gave its origin to Smarts studio on Long Island. Today, HC & F Studio is the leading reggae-recording studio in the states (Barrow 1997). More and more reggae-recording studios began to pop up including Jah Life, also making its home in the Big Apple, owned and operated by Hyman Wright and Percy Chin.