All Aboard The CN Express – Various (Doctor Bird)

The revamped Doctor Bird label continues to go from strength to strength with its reissuing of obscure and hard-to-find Jamaican releases of the original skinhead era, and is rapidly becoming the Kent records of classic era reggae and its progenitors. Having already looked at the recordings of famed JA artist Clancy Eccles on two previous releases, the label now turns its attention to his work as a producer, and features a whole host of hard-to-find and completely unknown releases. All these tracks were recorded through 1967 and ’68, the era where rocksteady slowly became the earliest form of reggae, and are widely acknowledged as being the most important time for the growth of Jamaican music, both at home and abroad. A smattering of well-known tracks are included – Easy Snappin’ by Theo Beckford and the title track from Clancy’s All Stars, to name two – and well-known names make an appearance, including a very early and massively obscure outing for Errol (OK Fred) Dunkley on Bad Minded Woman, along with early reggae and rocksteady royalty Alton Ellis, Eric ‘Monty’ Morris, Ernest Ranklin and, of course, Clancy’s long-time collaborator Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who contributes his hard-to-find You Were Meant For Me and Hey Mama. Alongside these are recordings from obscure acts including The Coolers, The Silverstars and Velma Jones, an artist about whom it seems nothing is really known, other than the two recordings included here.