KINGSTON, Jamaica – Ken Boothe is singing a song familiar to many of his contemporaries: that his new songs are being overlooked by disc jockeys in Jamaica.
The singer’s latest album, Journey, was recorded and produced at his Kingston home studio. It features the title track and New World Order.
“Jamaicans need to get more familiar with the new stuff. When I tour Europe and Japan, people know the songs but here, few people react to the songs,” said Boothe.
“Jamaican fans look to what we are used to and not the new material. But I still love performing here in Jamaica, this is the root,” said Boothe who will perform at a concert dubbed Memories By The Score at Ashe Performing Arts Centre in St. Andrew.
“I am looking forward to the event. I have a great repertoire of songs that I love to sing, but I also will be doing songs from Journey.”
Boothe, 65, emerged during the rocksteady era of the 1960s with a number of hit songs like Puppet on a String and Moving Away. He maintained that momentum into the 1970s thanks to big hits such as Silver Words and Everything I Own. The latter was a massive seller in the United Kingdom in 1975.
His last big hit in Jamaica came in the early 1990s with a cover of Della Reece’s Don’t You Know.