Jam Session

The Mighty Diamonds, one of reggae’s finest and most consistent harmony trios, recorded several fine albums at the Dynamic and Music Mountain studios in Jamaica with producer Delroy Wright in the mid- to late 1980s; this one, released in 1990, isn’t necessarily the strongest of the three, but is still very good. As always, the incredibly sweet lead vocals of Donald “Tabby” Shaw” are the prime attraction; Shaw could sing the phone book to a melody by Charles Ives and make it seductive. But the backing band, which includes the core membership of the legendary Revolutionaries, is also exceptional. The title track — a boring piece of metareggae — and the out-of-tune “Black Skin Lady” drag this program down a bit, but it’s easily redeemed by such delicacies as “A Lesson We Should Learn” and the plaintive sufferer’s anthem “A Feather in a Rich Man’s Hat.” If you had to choose between this one and 1988′s Never Get Weary, the latter would be the better choice, but there’s no reason not to have both. – Rick Anderson