Ska Boom Stories: Johnny Nash American Reggae Pioneer?

Welcome to the first episode of Ska Boom Stories -- a new podcast series that will highlight stories, anecdotes and gossip taken from all 19 chapters of Ska Boom! An American Ska & Reggae Oral History that is now available for pre-order through the DiWulf Publishing website. The book will be available on 7/4/21. While Ska Boom! focuses on telling the story of the birth of a uniquely American version of ska and reggae that developed in the late 70s and early to mid 80s, there were early American pioneers in the mid 60s and early 70s who laid the groundwork for popularizing ska, rocksteady and reggae. Two of those American musical pioneers were pop soul singer Johnny Nash and his manager Danny Sims.In this episode I’ll explain how Nash -- once dubbed the King of Reggae – helped to bring Jamaican music into the American pop mainstream. I’ll also dig into how Nash ended up meeting and hiring a struggling, young, Jamaican songwriter named Bob Marley and how that relationship would change both their lives and the course of reggae music history. While I’m sure you’ve heard of Nash and Marley, you may not be familiar with Sims, but he is integral to this story and someone worthy of a Netflix documentary. The New York Times called Sims  -- who passed away in 2012, “one of the people most responsible for Bob Marley’s success who has gotten the least amount of notice for it.” If you’ve listened and received some value from this episode, then please help support the  podcast for as little as $3 per month on Patreon. Supporters get access to exclusive content like special episodes of the podcast and advanced promo chapters from the book. Please note: The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices