Barry Brown I’m Still Waiting

Roots reggae star Barry Brown has a readily identifiable vocal style that has long made him among the most preferred of many roots reggae fans. Drawing largely from the blueprint provided by Horace Andy, but changing that into something all his own through a unique form of vocal phrasing, interspersed with ad-hoc slurs, Brown was initially discovered through the many amateur talent contests that fringed his west Kingston ghetto neighbourhood during the early 1970s; he was also making an impact at the same time by performing live on local sound systems. Several different producers have claimed to have been the first to record him, but it is undeniable that Brown had strong links with Sugar Minott’s Black Roots collective, and some of Brown’s very first recordings were released by Sugar, both in Jamaica and overseas. The exceptionally rare album I’m Still Waiting was released in 1983 by Rocktone International, a spin-off of Sugar’s Black Roots outfit, based in Queens, New York, with a further branch in Toronto (which reportedly closed just prior to the album’s release). As noted on the original sleeve, the musicians featured on the disc include ‘Milo T, Snappin, Badness, Flowers, and Drummie from High Times,’ while Mr Brown is on fine form throughout.