The Jolly Boys

The Jolly Boys are the foremost performers of mento, the ribald, witty first cousin of Jamaican reggae. Like reggae, mento is marked by a shuffling, syncopated guitar strum, an irreverent attitude, and a lazy, swaying danceability. Unlike reggae, mento has no sacramental roots, nor does it strain after profundity. Instead, mento makes a religion of sexual braggadocio, drinking, and good times. The Jolly Boys have been composing and performing mentos for decades; indeed, they used to perform for Errol Flynn when he stayed at his Jamaican villa. Their sound is derived from rhythmic bongo playing, along with solos by the banjo and kalimba (finger piano). Two representative discs are Pop 'n' Mento and Sunshine n' Water. The Jolly Boys are hardly naïve folk musicians, though, and they aren’t traditionalists -- they’ll drop any song they feel like performing into the mento template and they aren’t afraid of gently modernizing their sound