Reggae Senegal

Barry Allama Boy is a musician about whom I've been able to find nothing, and I mean NOTHING, on the internet or anywhere else. This cassette, Medina Larabi, was recorded in Ivory Coast, but I believe he is from Senegal, probably from the southern Casamance region. I like this indigenous Senegalese take on reggae music and I hope you will too!

Barry Allama Boy - Larabi

Barry Allama Boy - Iman

Barry Allama Boy - Truandage

Barry Allama Boy - Awario

Barry Allama Boy - Gniman

Barry Allama Boy - Ressources

Download Medina Larabi as a zipped file here.

Pat Thomas's False Lover

I posted four tracks from Pat Thomas's 1974 album False Lover (Gapophone GAPO 02) almost ten years ago. Recently a reader asked that I post the whole LP. Pat's been experiencing a career renaissance lately, and he's been a mainstay of Likembe, so I couldn't think of a good reason why not!

False Lover was Thomas's first solo LP after stints with the Broadway and Uhuru Dance Bands. As he states in the liner notes of the retrospective, Coming Home: Original Ghanaian Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1964-1981 (Strut STRUT 147, 2016):

...I was planning to go to Europe but the Cocoa Marketing Board in Ghana got in touch and wanted me to form a new band. So, I went back to recording and writing music with Ebo [Taylor] and formed the Sweet Beans. The album featuring the band, False Lover, was my first album under my own name and it was very special for me. Reggae was "on" at that time and Jimmy Cliff was the top singer so I was trying reggae in his style on tracks like "Revolution" and "False Lover." I was open to all styles, though, and would always try whatever sounds were coming in. False Lover was a big album in Ghana ...

The first four tracks of False Lover are indeed reggae, but the rest of the album is straight-ahead danceband highlife, and very successful. Enjoy!

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Revolution

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - False Lover

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - It Takes Time

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Sweet Baby

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Set Me Free

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Don't Beat the Time

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Abotare Na Ntease

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Ɔdɔ San Bra

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Merebre

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Mesiafo

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Wabe Aso

Pat Thomas & the Sweet Beans - Eye Wo Asɛm Ben

Download False Lover as a zipped file here.