It seems odd that some folks that had a pretty drastic impact in the charts on that island down there really never had any huge break through in other parts of the record buying world. Subject matter and a backing band were and are obviously important, but that still doesn't explain everything.

music/Cornell+Campbell">Cornel Campbell is one of the folks that never really made it off the island - although he does still tour and has shared a stage with the Slackers amongst other new comers to the genre. But in attempting to figure out why Campbell never had the same popularity in the diaspora as in JA, the only element that might have caused consternation was his false setto. It wasn't any higher pitched than Junior Murvin's - perhaps less pervasive, but still....

The singer was able to work with any number of those top tier producers and considering that his career in music began at a pretty young age, it's again surprising that his name isn't as well known as others. Some of his work, though, does sit in the lover's rock ghetto. And while that all caught on in England, it didn't work out too well elsewhere. Again, though, Capbell's voice should have been more than enough to get him over.

For the most part, Campbell has been relegated to modern reissue compilations and a few reissued singles collections. Perhaps the disc with the highest visibility - even though that's relative - comes in the form of the Original Blue Recordings ('70 - '79) from the Moll Selekta label out of Germany. And no, I still haven't figured out why German's love reggae reissues. Try to hunt down the Wackie's reissues and see where the shipping address is...

Anyway, the Original Blue Recordings cover only a short period of Campbell's association with Bunny Lee, who would be rightly considered in the same light as Coxsonne Dodd. The production value here is pretty high, although, I have to believe that the decade that the disc covers, which would be the height of Campbell's popularity, probably gave us a few more tracks. But that's simple conjecture.

The music here moves from a rock steady era Campbell to a latter day roots sound - with a lone dub rounding the disc out. And even if most of the lyrical content is focused upon women, the political and religious fare here works to displace the singer from the lover's rock category - partially.

Oddly, this collection doesn't sport a stand out - like "The Gorgon." But as that makes touting Campbell a bit difficult, the sincerity in "I'm Just a Country Boy" might outweigh any criticism of the scope that his work covers. The track isn't all that much more remarkable than other songs discussing the wide eyed perspective of a kid moving to the city or longing for starry nights. But there's something about Campbell's delivery here that should make listeners envision the situations he recounts.

Even as I can figure Cornel Campbell for an indispensible part of the JA recording industry, this disc ends up sounding pretty flat. It's just surprising from the singer when paired with the production crew that he was graced with. Bummer.