Album Review: Ken Boothe & Jah Wobble - Old Fashioned Ways

Ken Boothe is one of my all time favorite vocalists. In the mid 1960s, he was at the forefront of the invention of Rocksteady. In the early 1970s, he had a handful of reggae hits in the UK that only two or three other artist could match (even getting namechecked by the Clash on “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”) So I don’t begrudge Boothe for staying busy and trying to attract new fans. 2017s Inna de Yard album with backing from the reggae collective of the same name is a five star album. 

A mix of a handful of his big hits and newer or lesser known songs performed mostly in an acoustic setting, it truly is one of the great albums of the last decade. I was already a Boothe fan thanks to the various Studio One and Trojan compilations, but this is an album that would convert new fans So you will get no complaints out of me when Jah Wobble has partnered with Ken Boothe for 2025 album Old Fashioned Ways. 

Boothe has picked some of his biggest songs- “Artibella”, “Everything I Own”, “Is it Because I’m Black” and “Freedom Street”- and some well known covers - “Just My Imagination”, “My Girl” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Admittedly, it’s hard to take the album seriously. Besides the track list, the cover is nondescript AI generated art; but mostly everything about it (including the press kit) looks exactly like last year’s Timeless Roots - the album Jah Wobble made with reggae legend Horace Andy.

Cleopatra Records has a bad reputation recently as their main MO has changed from being known for their 90s Goth records to recent decades of mainly churning out low quality punk compilations. Last fall, the label made headlines as it appeared they were forcing out Dead Boys singer Jake Hout to replace him with AI generated vocals of the late Stiv Bators. 

But Cleopatra has had some notable releases lately and the album does sound good. I am sure Wobble legitimately is a fan of Andy and Boothe. Wobble, of course is a legend himself, bassist for the classic early Public Image Ltd albums and had a solid solo career afterwards often working in high profile projects with people like Sinead O’Conner, Bill Laswell and Brian Eno among dozens of others. 

Boothe sounds great and Wobble accompanies him with generally a deep bass or dub sound. Although their are a fair number of Boothe compilations, this album pairs well with Inna De Yard as a good primer for Boothe. There’s surprisingly little crossover even though both albums feel designed to introduce Boothe a new audience. I believe the only song on both is Booth’s signature tune “Artibella”. Boothe has performed it often over the years, sometimes in ska or rocksteady, sometimes as reggae. It is one of my all time favorite songs and this point does not disappoint as his yearning vocals are perfectly matched by Wobble’s dub accompaniment. 

“Ain’t No Sunshine” is so well trodden as a cover but Boothe sings it as it is everything to him before Wobble turns it into a dub delight. “You Left The Water Running” has been performed by the greats- Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and even Boothe back in 1974- and here it invokes the greats. There’s no real clunkers here. Even “Reggae Christmas” which was written and originally released in 1984 by that noted reggae legend Bryan Adams (of “Cuts Like A Knife” fame) appended at the end is quite enjoyable It feels weird getting excited about an album that won’t get much press (Mojo magazine did give it a glowing review but only awarded three stars out of five) and maybe that’s understandable, but it’s a really great listen.