Colin Grant

Why a whole new generation of young Europeans are turning to old-school reggae

Roots reggae is the subject of a beguiling new documentary, Inna De Yard. Colin Grant talks to those who gave birth to the movement about the music’s spiritually uplifting roots

issue 24 August 2019

A camera sweeps across the verdant, shimmering beauty of Jamaica before descending on to a raffishly charming wooden house built into the hills. We’re at a music studio where four of the pioneers who gave birth to reggae are congregated to record a new album.

‘It’s tranquil, a real feeling of nature, just birds, trees and the wind,’ says 71-year-old Ken Boothe, whose seductive voice is smooth as rum, just as it was in 1974 when ‘Everything I Own’ stormed the British charts.

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