Kingstonians

Kingstonians

Another group outside of the Beverleys powerbase of The Maytals, The Pioneers andThe Melodians, was the The Kingstonians lead by Jackie Bernard. They also worked with Carl Johnson's Sir JJ label, but their success during the reggae era came with singer / songwriter/producer Derrick Harriott.

Although in sound their style was very roots, lyrically they were very close to The Pioneers.They used old time sayings and proverbs but never got too culturall or Sang too many reality tunes Their success came from their overall vocal harmony more than anything else. Having said that, one of their biggeest hits was 'Sufferer' , a reality tune. More tynical of the group's material were their other bigs hits for Derrick Harriott. These were 'Singerman'and 'Winey Winey' 'Singer Man' sounds like it's got the Hippy Boys on it, big wide bass lines long organ breaks. ' Winey Winey' is also mememorable, with its very distinct bass line. All the tunes mentioned are available on the groups album 'Sufferer' released onTrojan at the time, and recently re-released by the same company.