DWIGHT Pinkney had the United States west coast on his mind when he came up with the theme for his sixth solo album, Dwight Pinkney and DP Band. On it, the veteran guitarist puts a reggae spin on some of the biggest theme and surf songs from the 1960s.

Released early this year by Tads Record, Dwight Pinkney and DP Band was recently named in a provisional list of 50 for the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. It is the only instrumental set among the batch.

PINKNEY… even though it’s provisional, I see it as a big achievement

“Even though it’s provisional, I see it as a big achievement and it shows someone out there is listening. My plan from day one was to make instrumental albums of international standard,” Pinkney told the Jamaica Observer.

Pinkney produced ‘DP Band’, a 12-track piece that contains reggae interpretations of the James Bond and Hawaii Five-O themes, surfer favourites Pipeline and Wipeout and The Animals’ eerie House of the Rising Sun.

This is Pinkney’s first Grammy consideration as a solo act, but he has played on several Best Reggae Album winners: Bunny Wailer’s Time Will Tell, Hall of Fame and Crucial! Roots Classics, Friends by Sly and Robbie and True Love from Toots and The Maytals.

Five or six nominees will make the eventual Best Reggae Album category. The Grammy Awards will be held February 13 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

‘DP Band’ is Pinkney’s latest instrumental album. Some of his previous efforts include Jamaican Memories by the Score, All Occasions and Pinkney Picks Marley Melodies which hears his take on rocksteady and Bob Marley songs.

Pinkney started his career in the late 1960s as a member of The Sharks — a band that recorded at Studio One. He moved on to the progressive-reggae band Zap Pow in the 1970s, and recorded and toured for nearly 20 years with the Roots Radics.

His next album, Dwight Pinkney Vocalist, a collection of his hits as a singer, is scheduled to be released next month by Fort Lauderdale’s Upstairs Music.