VP Records, the world’s largest Reggae label, came out a couple of months ago with this new collection called “Reggae Gone Country”.
As much as bizarre as it can sounds, it actually a nice unpredictable combination.
Apparently Country music and Reggae music have some common similarities: love and romantic themes, everyday’s struggle stories, spiritual devotion, dialects and local expressions are often used in country songs as in reggae songs.
Also, apparently, country music is gaining popularity in the island of Jamaica and a project like this works in favor of reggae and country music both!
It was Cristy Barber,Vice President of Marketing and Promotions at VP Records, that thought first of the project, teamed up with John Rich, from the multi-platinum country selling duo Big & Rich and Dean Fraser, legendary Jamaican saxophonist and top Reggae Producer.
Together they created Reggae Gone Country where they took some of Jamaican‘s favorite classic american country songs putting a whole new instrumental on them while keeping the same country root.
It may sound weird at first but it’s nice and very catchy!Romain Virgo re-sings “California”, Duane Stephenson sings “Suspicions”, Busy Signal sings “The Gambler”. Etana and Tessane Chin sing on “Crazy” and “Don’t Make My Brown Eyes Blue”.
The album was recorded in Kingston, mainly at the Tuff Gong Marley’s Studios where after working on the tracks they would send them in Nashville to add banjos and so on!
