BY HOWARD CAMPBELL—
Observer senior writer—
The ATF Band: Stephen Lee, Herbie Harris, Lyndon Webb and Courtland White.—
YARDIE, a seven-song EP by the ATF Band, is scheduled to be released digitally on July 10 by VPAL Music. Last Friday the quartet released Irie High, the EP’s third single, through TuneCore.
The EP contains the hit title song and Say A Prayer, a cover of The Brotherhood of Man classic. Both came out last year.
Stephen Lee, the band’s drummer, told the Jamaica Observer that the songs on Yardie pay homage to reggae’s evolution.
“This EP, we definitely tried to cover a wide variety of different Jamaican reggae music. There is even a ska tune titled Saturday Night which has a nice story about a man and his woman going out for the evening and enjoying themselves. All the songs are written by the band,” said Lee.
Herbie Harris on keyboards and vocals, guitarist Courtland White, and bass player Lyndon Webb are the other members of the ATF Band which formed five years ago.
The humorous Yardie was their breakout hit, doing well in the strong Jamaican Diaspora markets of South Florida and New York. It set the pace for follow-up singles and the EP.
“ Yardie‘ s success has basically put us back on the music scene as all of us had toured with many different bands over the years. It was a blessing when Herbie brought us together to form our own band,” said Lee.
Harris and Lee were members of the Kotch band which had a big hit during the 1980s with Jean. Harris also recorded and toured with Third World.
White joined ATF’s line-up after several years with the Raging Fyah band. Webb has toured with American band Big Mountain.
Pointing to a range of influences from Bob Marley, Dennis Brown and Third World to Motown and Prince, Lee said the “ATF sound is geared for all markets”.
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