Solid Gold Showcase (Music Life Production, 2008)

*GUEST REVIEW*
Reggae music has seen a good many harmony trios but not so many duos. One notable singing twosome is the Maytones, Vernon Buckley and Gladstone Grant, who began their career with producer Alvin Ranglin in the '70s. A greatest hits package on the Heartbeat label a few years back brought renewed interest in the Maytones' output of roots and lover's rock, but their presence on the reggae scene has been low profile since their initial splash. A combination of past Channel One cuts and more recent Canadian recordings, Solid Gold Showcase shows them to still be in the game. The lead vocals of Vernon Maytone (the name by which Vernon Buckley goes these days) remain a pleasing mixture of imploring soul and cool declaration, slipping along on a current of what sounds like mainly programmed riddims, a few of which are re-used for different songs on the first part of the disc. The last five songs are the older ones, sporting full-band arrangements that the sparseness of the musical backing on the newer selections can't match, though in the vocal department there's no loss of quality from past to present. This is, as the title suggests, a solid updating of one of reggae's rare two-man configurations, who not only look dapper in the bowler hats they wear in the inside cover photo but sound as strong as ever.

- Tom Orr