Jamaica's
Jolly Boys -- in one incarnation or another -- have been playing their street corner version of mento in the north coast Port Antonio area since the 1940s, and their joyous, frequently off-color and decidedly ramshackle approach to the music has made them an enduring tourist favorite. Mento is essentially (but not exactly) calypso stripped down to a tenor banjo, a guitar and some hand drums (and in the case of the
Jolly Boys, a large thumb piano known as a rhumba box), and while it would appear to be Jamaican folk music, it is really designed to provide tourists with what they expect to hear as Jamaican folk music, which explains the high number of
Irving Burgie (the Brooklyn native who wrote "Jamaica Farewell," "Day-O," "Wheel and Turn," "River Come Down," "Yellow Bird" and several other West Indies facsimiles) songs in the
Jolly Boys' repertoire. But giving the people what they think they want is a proven management plan, and the
Jolly Boys have turned their rustic skills into an endearing art.
Sunshine N' Water is pretty much like the group's other two outings for Rykodisc (
Beer Joint & Tailoring,
Pop 'n' Mento), with a scattering of
Burgie material (the lead track here, "Take Me Back to Jamaica," is really
Burgie's "Island in the Sun") mixed in with the folky (and often ribald) wisdom of tunes like "Hold Me Jack." The up-stroking banjo and guitar rhythms, coupled with an emphasis on the second and fourth count of the beat, gives mento the feel of proto-reggae, and it is really just a short jump, some horns and a faster tempo away from early ska, which is where modern Jamaican music really gets going. In a way, the
Jolly Boys are a bit like an American jug band, playing whatever will hold a crowd on the corner, and doing it with such joyous energy (and a decided wink in the eye) that everyone goes home happy. ~ Steve Leggett