Continuing JA music folks relative obsession with the Wild West and American cowboy myths, emcee Johnny Ringo took his name of a relatively well known ‘badman.’

Making all of this focus a bit ridiculous is the fact that in JA, especially in the seventies, there must have been scant information about any of these horse riding figures. Today, there’s not too great a chance that the name would be used. The real Johnny Ringo – of the first one at least – wasn’t especially well known for his participation in gun fights, even as he was a part of the cohort to have a go at the OK Corral. Possessing no storied acts, Ringo’s most related tale involves shooting a guy in a bar because he ordered the wrong drink. That doesn’t make him a tough guy. Just dumb.

So, it’s curious that the JA Johnny Ringo took the name. And it leads to the question of, what story did the emcee and toaster hear that made him desire the moniker? Who knows. But it’s as bizarre as that Upsetters’ album titled The Return of Django.

Either way, the JA Johnny Ringo is pretty well thought of in dancehall circles. Of course, the first leg of his career was over by 1985 – picking it up again in the early aughties. We could just blame his odd name on the entire thing, but that can’t be the case. But after hearing his eponymous album, released in 1982 with backing from the Roots Radics and the Gladiators, it’s worth wondering if the bottom just feel out of the dancehall racket, because this is a solid album.

It’s also the kind of album that doesn’t bother setting itself lyrical limits. Instead, the toaster moves through songs touching on the social lives of musicians and even gets into a troublesome track about herepes.

The former, though, counts as something of a phone book listing of active singers at the time. None of it rhymes, but Johnny Ringo’s able to tie together the entire scene – everyone’s in there. Men and women alike. It’d be difficult to figure the song as a concerted effort to unite the scene, but that well may have been something of an unintended result. There’s no question that hearing that track at some sound-system dance would have resulted in a bevy of “Whoaaaas.” Even if it didn’t, though, it’s part of a surprisingly strong dancehall album.