by accident i stumbled over his album Soul Reggae and I like it a lot. I'm usually sceptical when it comes to less known artists, but this man makes some great music in the good old way. A mixture between Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley and out comes the Soul Reggae album.

Does anyone else know/like him??

graecophilos said:

Beres is a legend in the reggae genre. Some would consider him the "Marvin Gaye" of reggae. You should check out all of his CD's. My favorite song by him is called, "Sweetness". Great track!!

shorttrini said:

Beres is the man.....his voice is like no other ....I like the "Marvin Gaye" link because he's that good...really...

Maxi Priest & Beres Hammond - How can we ease the pain
http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

Love Beres! He has one of the best and most identifiable voices in reggae.

One of the ways I develop my music collection, outside the realm of what I would normally collect, is to ask people that I come across the "Desert Island" question: "If you were stranded on a deserted island for the rest of eternity, what is the ONE CD or artist you would want to have with you".

A few years back, when I was having cable installed, the technician that came by was of obvious Carribean decent. So I asked him what artist would HE would want with him on that deserted island, and what I THOUGHT he said (due to his accent) was "Barry Salmon", whom I had absolutely never heard of. I got him to slow it down and repeat it enough times for me until I was able to make out that what he said was Beres Hammond, lol (though at the time, I had to Google around a bit to eventually get the spelling right).

I have grown to generally dislike a lot of reggae music, not for the sound (which I LOVE!), rather due to much of the sexist, racist, and homophobic rhetoric much of it promotes. As an example, I was at a Sizzla concert several years back, the club was PACKED with wall to wall MEN (...no women in sight!), of all ages, shapes, and sizes, all rocking and grooving to Sizzla's beats, and ALL absolutely checking each other out, lol. I'll readily admit, I couldn't make out HALF of the lyrics, but the beat was SLAMMIN! That club was rockin' off it's hinges baby! At one point of his set, Sizzla was raising his fist and shouting "FIRE!". And so everyone, including me, followed along, raising our fists and shouting "FIRE!". I thought they were talking about lighting a BONG, or commenting on how this shit was hot or something, lol. Turns out, the song was talking about setting "Batty Boys" (their term for Gay Men) on fire!!! WHAT!?!

But anyway, again I digress. I trusted the cable guys opinion because he was more mature, closer to my own age, and I felt he would be beyond the nonsense. Furthermore, my idea is; that if an artist means THAT much to one person, then it's at least worth listening to once for myself to decide what I think, so I did... and I've been a fan of Beres Hammond ever since. Thanks to the cable guy.

There is so much great music being made ALL OVER the world, by ALL KINDS of people.

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