Escape From Nowheresville

I grew up in Mount Vernon, NY. It always makes me laugh when people in NYC ask me if I’m going back upstate at the end of the day. My block was on the border of the Bronx and the 241st street subway was nearby. For many years the 2 train was my mode of travel to the Village. In the early 70s, Caribbean stations were all over radio and White Plains Avenue under the El was a thriving Jamaican community. I loved reggae immediately after being turned on like everyone else by Clapton’s version of “I Shot the Sheriff.” Reggae is bass heavy and I’m a bass player first so I was intrigued right away. Jeff Barnes and Gil Bailey were the two DJs that ruled these stations. Besides reggae, there was Soca and Calypso. These stations would go off the air at sunset every night and the last half hour would feature a spaced out take on reggae that I had never heard before. I would always make sure to be listening at this time. There was one song that really got to me called “Baltimore.” The song itself was great but the version at end of the day was incredible. It had all the elements I loved: a deep bass, a cracking snare, voices and horns drifting in and out, an other worldly sound. I was hooked.
At the foot of the stairs up to the station at 241st was a small record store called Wackie’s House of Music. One day, around 1978 or so I walked in and asked if they had “Baltimore.” Lloyd Barnes, Wackie himself, went through the stacks of 45s and pulled “Baltimore” by the Tamlins. Then he turned and pointed to a man and said, “this is Gil Bailey!” I was carrying my bass so Wackie asked me if I wanted to check out the studio in the back of the store. Turns out the studio was what Wackies was all about; the record store just an extra. They were in the middle of a session. The first thing I noticed was a stack of 4 Roland Space Echoes, the key, I would later learn, to the sound of Dub music.
When I got home, I took the record out of the sleeve. When I turned it over there was a song called “Version” and the artist wasn’t the Tamlins but Sly and Robbie and the Revolutionaries. When I played it I was thrilled to find out that it was the song I had been captivated by every evening. My first Dub record but certainly not my last.
Below you can hear both sides of the Tamlins “Baltimore” followed by a version of Tender Heart, a new track by me showing dub influences. Let me know what you think.

SKM