yardie's reggae collection
- artist page
KEN
BOOTHE (b. 1946 - )
EVERYTHING I OWN * * * / 
1968-1974 - Trojan - studio
- discs:1Ken Boothe (1946) started his career at the beginning of the Sixties, as a soul influenced artist. This characteristic of his musical approach will always be his trademark. He moved the first steps with Winston Delano Stewart as a duo. The succees came by the mid 60's with Coxsone Dodd but before he had already released some early material with Sonia Pottinger. His debut set called "Mr. Rocksteady" perfectly describes the mood at the time. And the title speaks by itself. Later he worked with many other producers gaining the most interesting results with Leslie Kong. Boothe sounds slowly moved from the Rocksteady era to the early Reggae one. This release is not the original set by the same title but a compilation that spreads his entire career. It is useful to have a quite fullfilling impression of how Boothe moved from Rocksteady to Reggae. It is pretty clear how the music moved from the late 60's to the early 70's. I do not find anything particularly impressive except the last tunes when Reggae is coming on the surface. What is for sure interesting is his Ottis Redding kind of vocal style. So I really appreciate the soul style of "Second Chance". But if you want to be completely caught off guard listen to the incredible and powerful "Is It Because I'm Black". This song stands over thousands of releases around 1974. This song is stellar! |