Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart. Kenneth Bilby

       Give Thanks

      The larger research project that provided the materials for this book has been many years in the making, and has benefited from the goodwill and kind gestures of many, including some who offered help of one kind or another long before the book itself was even imagined. Reaching back across the years, I hope my memory is up to the task of gathering together and recognizing here all those who have played some part.

      For inspirational early conversations and interviews (years before this project was conceived), I thank Horace Andy, Jimmy Cliff, Donald Davidson (of the Jolly Boys), the late Desmond Dekker, Lord Laro, Lloyd Lovindeer, the late Junior Murvin, Ras Michael, Winston Rodney (Burning Spear), the late David Scott (Scotty), and the late Peter Tosh.

      For essential help with tracking down and contacting particular musicians (once this project was in motion), I thank Dennis Alcapone, Wayne Armond, Andy Bassford, Virgil Bland, Bunny Brown, Glen Browne, Andrea Bullens, Charles Cameron, Frankie Campbell and JAVAA (Jamaica Association of Vintage Artists and Affiliates), Claudelle Clarke, Brother Sam Clayton, Tony Clayton, Gary Crosby, Jim Dooley, Luke Ehrlich (The White Ram), Steve Golding, the late Winston Grennan, Joe Hilton, Jake Homiak, Joe Isaacs, Ruddy Isaacs, Jackie Jackson, Tony Johnson (Jamaka, aka Tee Birdd), Desi Jones, Al Kaatz, Brian Keyo, Elliott Leib, Colin Leslie, Charmaine Limonius, John Masouri, Larry McDonald, Clive McKerney (Jah Roots), Vin Morgan, Dan Neely, Ken Parker, Dave Rosencrans, Cheryl Ryman, the late Robert Schoenfeld, Roger Steffens, Carter Van Pelt, Marjorie Whylie, and Mark Williams.

      Special thanks go to the phenomenal Herbie Miller, who knows just about everybody in the world of Jamaican popular music, and who generously opened his address book and helped open innumerable doors for me in Kingston and beyond.

      For moral support, good words, and good deeds, I thank David Aarons, Roger Abrahams, the late Gerard Béhague, Bryan Bilby, John Chernoff, John Cowley, Elizabeth Branch Dyson, DJ Emch, Bill Ferris, Samuel Floyd, Ray Funk, Don Hill, Richard Price, Wynne Racine, the late Johns Storm Roberts, Roswell Rudd, Cheryl Ryman, Nini Salet, Guha Shankar, Margot Snellback, and Jason Toynbee.

      For invaluable critical feedback on early drafts of the book, I thank Garnette Cadogan, Jefferson Miller, and Wynne Racine.

      For illuminating discussions, special insights, and groundbreaking cultural work, I thank Dennis Bovell, the late Cedric Brooks, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the late Rex Nettleford, and Garth White.

      For material and logistical support, I thank the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago.

      For many years of valued correspondence and inspiring poetry, and for making sure that this book saw the light of day, I thank Norm Weinstein.

      For their friendship and for additional help in ways impossible to label, I thank my Big Bredda Charles Cameron (Charley Organaire) and my Likkle Bredda Garnette Cadogan.

      For their loving care, and for helping to make both music and Jamaica so much a part of my life, I thank my mother, Helen Owen Bilby, and my grandmother, Kitty Owen.

      Along with thanks, I must offer apologies to the several musicians and singers who contributed interviews to my project but could not be included in this book mainly because I lacked suitable photographs—among them such well-known figures as Toots Hibbert (of the Maytals), Family Man Barrett (of the Wailers), and the late Lloyd Knibb (of the Skatalites), as well as a number of lesser known but no less important

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