Mikey Bennett, Kirk “Koolface” Ford Featured In ‘Country Goes Reggae’ Mini Documentary
Reggae and Dancehall music producers Mikey Bennett and Kirk “Koolface” Ford were featured in the Positive Vibrations: Country Goes Reggae (Mini Documentary), which is aimed at showcasing how “Reggae music and Country music are both rooted in culture and storytelling”.
The two Jamaicans were featured alongside country singer Ricky Valido and line dancer Allan Silverman to share stories of how country and reggae culture influence one another.
Directed by Jay Will, the 10-minute doc was filmed at various rural locations in Jamaica and South Florida.
Offering his thoughts on the project, Will said: “growing up in Jamaica and listening to Country music, and being a huge fan of the genre, made me absolutely honored to get the opportunity to create visuals for the Country Goes Reggae album.”
He continued, “Reggae music and Country music go hand in hand with the types of stories they tell and the feeling it gives to people when they listen. Positive Vibrations transformed these hit Country songs into what will now definitely become island classics.”
The 11-track Positive Vibrations: Country Goes Reggae album, which put a Reggae twist on well-loved Country songs and which was produced by Christian and Frank Berman (The Berman Brothers) and partner Ron Oehl, was released in July 2022.
It had re-imagined several Country classics, among them Alabama’s Pass It On Down, Rascal Flatts’ I Like The Sound of That, Toby Keith’s Red Solo Cup, Uncle Kracker’s Smile, Randy Houser’s Boots On and Jimmie Allen’s Make Me Want To and Dolly Parton’s Two Doors Down.
“Country Goes Reggae was a very brilliant idea because producers sat down and figure out which songs were good to do a cover in a reggae version,” Koolface said of the production, which drew on the musical talents of Positive Vibrations, an ensemble of Jamaican musicians and sound engineers which includes Ian “Beezy” Coleman, Devon Bradshaw, Guillaume “Stepper Sax” Briard, and Henry “Matic” Tenyue.
For his part, Koolface pointed out that while growing up in Jamaica, Country artists “were on the radio a lot” particularly on Sundays, and that “a Kenny Rogers song like I’m the Gambler song was a famous song”.
“Country music is brilliant with storytelling and that’s why I think that we are pulled towards country music so much,” Ford said.
“And one of the biggest songs that I discovered over a period of time that I didn’t realize at the time was a song called if I were A Carpenter. So all these songs I realized that were country, but then they got covered or a rendition was done by reggae artistes,” he added.
During the documentary, Bennett pointed out that “almost every house in Jamaica that had a record player had albums by Country singers Marty Robinson album, Patty Paige, Skeeter Davis and Jim Reeves.
“Country songs give a lot of details that you can actually script. A lot of the lyrics in early Rock Steady we’re from country and western songs because these songs were about life,” he said in explaining why Jamaicans gravitated to that music genre.
According to the Berman Brothers, the idea for Country Goes Reggae was conceptualised during a trip to Negril, in Western Jamaica, back in 2019.
According to them, they were “sitting at a sunset, beach bar listening to reggae classics as a car passed by blasting US country songs” and upon hearing the blend of different styles and cultures, they knew a merger of the two genres would be nothing short of perfection.
The album was subsequently recorded at Axx Studio and the Sound of Silence in Kingston, Jamaica and at Livingston Studio in London. It was mixed by GRAMMY-winning mixing engineer Chuck Ainlay and mastered by 12-time GRAMMY winner Bob Ludwig.
The Berman Brothers are described as award-winning record producers and songwriters, whose work has been awarded with more than 90 Gold and Platinum Awards, two BMI awards, a Golden Globe nomination and a Grammy Award.
“As producers, writers and publishers they have worked with international superstars including: Coldplay, Sting, Maroon 5, Cher, Baha Men, Jason Derulo, Major Lazer (Diplo) and the legendary Buena Vista Social Club,” their website notes.
The duo was also Grammy-certified for their production and remix of the Baha Men’s Who Let The Dogs Out, a million-selling song that topped numerous music charts globally worldwide and was used as synchronization music in numerous movies and commercials.