Glen Washington in Beverly Hills

By Jan Salzman on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 - Photos by Jan Salzman - Comment

Glen Washington played at The Joint, Beverly Hills, California on October.

Sampler

Glen Washington has been prominent on the reggae scene since 1978, when he recorded his first hit, Rockers Not Crackers, on the Joe Gibbs Record Label. It took another decade before we got a chance to hear his smooth, raspy voice again on his second hit, Kindness for Weakness. Known as the singing drummer Glen has played with many reggae groups including Calabash, who backed many of reggae’s finest singers… Leroy Sibbles, Shinehead, Junior Reid, Gregory Isaacs and Sister Carol. Glen garnered eight awards from 1998-2002 for his wonderful voice and music.

Frequently compared to Beres Hammond, Glen’s style of singing is mostly romantic and he quite enjoys the comparison… Beres is one of his favorite artists! Glen is a prolific songwriter as well, penning most of the songs that he records on his albums. He has recorded ten albums to date.

This was a much anticipated evening and The Joint was packed with adoring fans. Glen took to the stage starting off with Jah Glory, then following up with Stranger… the ladies swooning all the while. Next, from the album 'Number One Girl', Glen treated us to Shana Na Na, Consider Me and One of These Days. With so much original material to draw from, Glen had to pick and choose from the requests being called out from the crowd. He did eighteen songs in his set and I was lucky enough to get a set list so you can peruse it and find all of the songs! Glen was brought back for an encore by his thrilled audience and gave us four more songs closing his set with Can’t Keep A Good Man Down, the title track to his album of the same name, his waist-length locks swaying to the riddim.

Glen Washington setlist

Exhausted from dancing and snapping photos I made my way backstage to capture a few shots with visiting dignitaries including Andrew Bees, actual lead singer from Black Uhuru. Glen was very gracious and obliged all of my snapping photos. He is a great and talented man. Thanks to The Joint and Glen Washington for a fabulous night of reggae music.