The States are not always the most hospitable arena for musicians to spread out, let loose and make it big. Of course, all of that’s relative seeing as most JA singers and performers wouldn’t have the same shot at stardom on their island – maybe the UK, though.

Differentiating between the UK and US reggae scene is pretty easy to do. Here in the States, there hasn’t been a significant, home grown reggae outfit that’s impacted the charts while maintaining some semblance of the music’s earlier periods. In the UK beyond the Specials and the second wave of ska, acts like Black Uhuru have wound up becoming international stars. But even if the entire globe hadn’t embraced its music, Black Uhuru had its place amongst other chart toppers for a time. None of that makes one country better than the other, just more in-tune to JA sounds.

Prince Mohammed, better known today as George Nooks, a sometimes successful religious singer, made a move to the US as opposed to the UK. It may have been because of JA’s proximity to the larger nation, but perhaps the gospel scene lured him here. Regardless, Nooks met with a modicum of success over time. And in 1997 was slated to receive some award for his recordings. The only problem was that Nooks got picked up by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Nooks apparently hadn’t come here with proper papers. Bummer. His family, though, accepted his awards and all of that is in the past.

During the seventies, Nooks worked almost exclusively under the Prince Mohammed name. And while some of his earliest works are perceived to have presaged much of what would become dancehall, at this late date, not everything winds up sounding so fresh.

Part of what can detract – or bolster – any JA song is its tie to other offerings from the genre’s past. “Ring the Alarm” is one of the better known rhythms from a genre rife with recognizable works. Nothing is going to surpass “Satta Massagana,” but “Ring the Alarm” comes close. Regardless, Nooks opens his album Bubbling, an odd ball compilation spanning the years 1979 through 1982, with the rhythm from that latter song. It’s an instantly recognizable pitch, but with the supplemental keyboards tossed atop of the offering, what results isn’t the most auspicious opening to an album ever heard.

No bother, it’s not a tremendous valley. And really, with Winston Riley behind the boards, there wasn’t too much of a chance that Prince Mohammed Nooks was going to turn in a lame disc. Time, though, has obscured the recording dates for most of what’s here. So, there might well be some overlap with Inna Him Head, which was released in 1980. The tracks here aren’t the same, but may have resulted from a single recording session. In the end it doesn’t matter considering the fact that what’s related on Bubbling is all above boards and eschews any of the malicious dancehall stuff that was soon coming to the island.