Reggae is more than the national music of Jamaica. It's a social force which embraces the cultural needs of the people it serves. Everyone in Jamaica listens to the latest songs for an immediate line on the political and spiritual pulse on the island, or just enjoys simply the lyrics about a long lost love. The symbiosis of producer Alvin Ranglin and singers Larry Marshall and Alvin Leslie (of course backed by a well-trained group of musicians known under the name of The Revolutionaries) led to a beautiful ten songs album in 1978. But as it happens sometimes the material was never issued with the exceptance of the song ''Last Nite'' (sic) which was released in 1981 on Ranglin's Hit label. The Dutch Jamaican Gold CD-label issued four songs of the Larry & Alvin album on a various artists cd in 1997, and plans were made for a full album release to follow soon. But it all went down the drain after the Jamaican Gold label was terminated in 2001.
Through the positive input of Alvin Ranglin and the Jamaican Art Records team we can now finally proudly presents Larry & Alvin ''Poor Man A Feel It''. Larry Marshall's career spans more than 55 years and he was not only a great songwriter but also an original roots-singer. Larry's songs are easily indentifiable because of his emotional and intense voice, heavily influenced by the Revival church and Folk traditions in Jamaica. No matter it's gospel, spiritual, love, folk, roots or reality songs, his deliverence is omnipresent. Hopefully you will appreciate our labour of love at Jamaican Art Records and the great songs on this album as we do.
Alvin Ranglin's memories about his productions with U-Roy
"At the time I started working with U-Roy on the LP Dread In A Africa in 1975, I already recorded a few good songs two-three years before with him. But sometime after this project with U-Roy my Record Village shop at 5 Hope Road -on Half Way Tree- got broken into, and these thieves set the place on fire. At the back of the shop, I had a storeroom in which I kept many of my tapes. So some tapes were destroyed with songs from artists like Eric Morris and also some of the U-Roy project. I rented that place from a Chinese lady and she wasn't insured so I lost a lot of money there! At that time this all happened I was in England for business. So it was very stressful to me as you can imagine. Anyhow, I decided a year later on to release the five songs which I still had on tape with some instrumentals from the backing band Skin, Flesh and Bones, as a kind of a showcase album. I don't know what at Dynamic Sounds where the album master was cut by Carlton Lee. Something went wrong as the stamper didn't came out 100% how it should have been. Anyhow, I pressed a very small number of the album, around 12 copies or so, and put them in blank jackets as I didn't made a printed jacket yet. As I rented a shop to TonyRobinson on Slipe Road it make sense a few of the U-Roy albums are carrying his sticker. It got a good reception on the test pressing so I just disbanded it as I thought it was better to concentrate on recordings I did with Gregory Isaacs and Maytones, which were big sellers at that time. U-Roy was of course going strong with Tony Robinson as his producer in 1976, so I'm glad after so many years passing by this album is finally getting a proper release on the Jamaican Art label.
![Larry & Alvin - Poor Man A Feel It [LP]](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/8057/products/jart123304_{width}x.jpg?v=1644325861)
![U-Roy - Dread In A Africa [LP]](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/8057/products/jart123303_{width}x.jpg?v=1644249440)