BY RICHARD JOHNSON
Observer senior reporter—
For more than four decades, reggae crooner Beres Hammond has been making hit music, and on October 12 he launched his latest project, Never Ending.
This album has 14 tracks including I’m Alive (produced by Hammond’s Harmony House), Land of Sunshine and My Kinda Girl, which are produced by Kurt Riley. Other producers contributing to the set include Willie Lindo, Errol “Flabba Holt” Carter, Kirk Bennett, and Handel Tucker. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Chart and currently sits at number three, after three weeks on that chart.
Hammond, who is known for his popular tracks including One Step Ahead, Rockaway, Double Trouble, What One Dance Can Do and No Disturb Sign, takes no credit for the compilation of tracks on Never Ending.
“Over the years I have made it a practice to record three or four times a week, once I’m in Jamaica. I just make songs. I don’t record like I am doing this concept and the album is going to be about these songs… no. Everyday of my life is a concept. You go outta street and you see people and you don’t know what their thoughts are … it’s those things that log inna my head, so when I come into the studio I just let all that out, let it flow,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“So by the time the organisation needs an album they can always go into the studio and pull some things. So I won’t give myself credit for the line-up on the album as far as the individual songs are concerned. Harmony house and VP Records gets all the credit for picking what they want,” Hammond added.
Does he have a favorite track from the project?
“No, no, no,” he said emphatically.
“They are all my children. All my songs are family and they speak different stories, so I really couldn’t love one over the other.”
Hammond relishes the love he gets from his fans and fellow artistes and musicians, and is imploring those in the industry to just continue making good music.
“I’m glad I’m the one getting all that love and I just want to share it with everyone, especially singers and musicians. I just hope we keep certain things on a low, like the violence. Now we have a fine crop of talent. In my mind all I think they should do is just unite and make a whole heap of money that the ones who went before didn’t do.”
Hammond is preparing for the third voyage of the Love and Harmony Cruise — the six-day cruise set to sail from Florida to Jamaica and Grand Cayman in April of next year.
“I love it. This time around I find myself mixing with a whole host of Jamaican legends, and there is nothing I like better than to share the stage with people who I think their music is just fantastic, this year I notice they have The Manhattans as well. We are going to make them Jamaicans, blend them into the whole thing. That again is like the icing on the cake,” said Hammond.
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