Great Expectation (Deluxe Edition)

The venerable mento outfit The Jolly Boys have been honing their craft since the mid-‘50s, when they first took their inimitable brand of rough-hewn Jamaican folk music into the fashionable supper clubs and hotels of Port Antonio and Kingston. Legend has it that island-hopping playboy Errol Flynn took a particular shine to The Jolly Boys and often enlisted them to play his private parties. Though The Jolly Boys performed continuously through the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, their discography is surprisingly slim. When Great Expectations appeared on the GeeJam label in 2010, the group hadn't recorded an official studio album for almost two decades. The album is something of a left turn for the group. Instead of dipping into their deep repertoire of mento standards, they offer up a dozen island-flavored covers of rock and punk classics like Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day,” The Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law,” and Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger.” The results are much stronger than one might expect, as The Jolly Boys are seasoned veterans who infuse all their performances with the relaxed confidence and effortless charisma that come with decades of experience.