Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends, 

Over the last week, we have all been dealing with the sad news of Toots Hibbert’s death, and during that time, Lily and I have been thinking about what he and his music have meant to us. What is abundantly clear when you listen to his work over the last six decades is how much his faith guided his life and songwriting. Toots was born as the son of Seventh Day Adventist preachers and was raised in that religion, and so his early compositions reflected his dedication to God. Later in his life, Toots embraced Rastafarianism, and those beliefs also impacted his music profoundly. For our tribute, we looked at Toots’ relationship to the Almighty and played not only his music about his faith, but also ska, Gospel, rocksteady and reggae. from other Jamaican artists whose lyrics express the divine. We love you Toots. God bless you. Generoso and Lily

Howdy Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,

As many of you now know by now, Toots Hibbert has been hospitalized since last week and so, we send our prayers and good thoughts his way.  In a show of support, we selected two ska cuts from Toots in 1964 to begin this week’s show, starting with a rare cut  for Randy’s that Toots wrote in honor of Muhammad Ali entitled, “He Is The Greatest.”  We followed that Toots ska up with another by Toots, a spiritual ska that he recorded for Coxsone in 1964, “He Is Real.”  Another set of ska followed with our Labor Day-inspired mento set thereafter, and then a long set of reggaes selected by Lily about faith for Toots, which featured an amazing Pluggy Satchmo nod to the 23rd Psalm, which he cut for Half Moon in 1976.  Our label spotlight this week is on Charles Hanna’s short-lived by superb, Graduates imprint, which we rattled off in one shot with no breaks for your listening pleasure.  Get well Toots! We love you XOXO Generoso and Lily

Hello Bovine Ska and Rocksteady Friends,

For this week’s program we turned our attention to the impressive catalog of songs composed by famed husband and wife songwriting duo, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who during their careers wrote hit after hit for The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Gram Parsons, just to name a few.  As a tribute for this show we selected our favorite covers of the Bryant’s songs, many of which were sung by some of the greatest vocalists in Jamaican music history like Alton Ellis and The Pioneers, who each cut great takes on the Bryant’s classic, “Bye Bye Love” and Ken Parker, whose 1972 reggae version of “Take A Message to Mary” is an absolute gem.  We hope that you enjoy our tribute to Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and we hope that you and yours are all safe and healthy. XO Generoso and Lily