This Wednesday (April 11, 2012) The Jolly Boys were special in studio guests on RJR 94FMs weekly live music program ‘Wednesday Night Live‘. The mento maestros had the whole crew dancing and grooving to the sounds of classic and contemporary mento music as they performed selections from their catalog of hits.



Among those performed were the classic mento songs were ‘Emmanuel Road’, ‘Linstead Market’ and ‘Rukumbine’ and their modern mento hits ‘Golden Brown’, ‘Rehab’ and ‘Ring of Fire’. In case you might have missed the broadcast, enjoy the snippet of their performance of Rukumbine (posted above) and this clip of their rendition of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire!

The Jolly Boys have been making strides and swaying crowds touring as R&B songbird Sade’s opening act in Europe, and all while celebrating the U.S release of their widely acclaimed album Great Expectation. The album, which features Mento interpretations of 12 contemporary classics including Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”, Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger”, Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” and Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” has been getting reviews from the press all over.



The album was recently reviewed by Banning Eyre of NPR‘s “All Things Considered”. You can listen to the review (spliced with great samples from the album) here:
read more!

On February 2, 2011 The Jolly Boys rocked the house at the first in a series of Reggae Month concerts held at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica. The night saw a number of astounding performances from the reigning Kings of Mento including a mixture of classic and modern mento hits.



It was after their cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday” that the crowd began shouting their request for the smash hit cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and the moment The Jolly Boys began performing it they were interrupted by members of the audience who had rushed forward to show their excitement. In case you missed this magnetic performance enjoy this snippet of The Jolly Boys performing “Rehab” at the event. read more!

Jamaica’s mento sensations The Jolly Boys are still on the move. Now fully into the groove of their European tour they’ve been busy spreading their island sunshine across snowy Germany. After getting the ball rolling with an electrifying performance at Club Ampere in Munich on Thursday and an interview with Radio Eins in Berlin on Friday, The Jolly Boys were more than ready to bring the heat at Frannz Club in Berlin yesterday.



Watch The Jolly Boys get warmed up for their show at Frannz Club in Berlin on Saturday December 4, 2010 with their cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”:

read more!

You’ve all been waiting for so long and the moment is finally here! The mento masters The Jolly Boys have released their album “Great Expectation” on Wall of Sound Records and already the International press is giving the album praise. The highly anticipated new album is a collaborative project between Geejam’s Jon Baker and Wall Of Sound’s Mark Jones and features Mento interpretations of 12 contemporary classics including Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”, Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” and Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”.

Here’s what The Guardian UK has to say about “Great Expectation”:

There’s already no contest for cover version of the year; it’s Amy’s “Rehab”, as delivered by the champions of Jamaican mento, the calypso-flavoured folk precursor of reggae. Fronted by the charismatic, gravel-voiced Albert Minott, the Port Antonio veterans apply their banjo ‘n’ maracas shuffle to another dozen numbers from the rock canon; songs by Blondie, the Doors, Iggy Pop and more. The results are erratic, if always charming. Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” fits their earthy style perfectly, and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” is transformed into a lilting Caribbean reflection.
See the review for yourselves here.
Mento is officially reborn and the world is ready! The album is available for purchase on itunes, amazon.co.uk, play.com, hmv.com and 7digital.com so what are you waiting for? Get your hands on a copy right now!

We are now just hours away from the release of the highly anticipated album “Great Expectation” by the legendary kings of mento and now modern mento The Jolly Boys. We know you’d like to get your hands on your copy right away and you can still pre-order the album here.

Leading up to the launch ‘the boys’ have been hard at work on tour in the UK and the recent Notting Hill Carnival was just one of the places where the fans got to see them in action.
Watch them performing their smash hit cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” at Notting Hill Carnival. It just might ease the waiting pains a little.

The Jolly Boys just won’t stop! With their UK tour now in full swing the mento masters have hardly had a moments rest. If you weren’t able to see it this morning see it now, as ‘the boys’ perform their smash hit cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” live on ITV’s Daybreak.

Their new album “Great Expectation” launches on the 13th of September, but you can pre-order yours right now right here!

Things are continuing to heat up for the Jamaican mento sensation The Jolly Boys. The band talks about their beginning, the birth of mento, the dawn of reggae, their return to the limelight and their fresh cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” in this skyNEWS interview.

We definitely had a blast performing for our fans last week Saturday night at Red Bones. I don’t know who had more fun, our fans or us performing.

In the first half of our performance, we did a traditional Mento set with songs like: Talking Parrot and Water the Garden. After our first segment we took a short break,during that break Dj Chris Sullivan from London kept the fans entertained with some very lively jazz tunes.

In our second set we performed Modern Mento which is the genre that we created and can be found on our upcoming album titled Great Expectations including songs like: Don’t keep me Hanging on the Telephone and our popular song Rehab that was originally done by Amy Winehouse.

Our fans had a great time and requested an encore, so we gave the people what they wanted at the end of our set we came back on stage to perform Rehab one last time. People came out in their numbers both young and not so young people, we were definately surprised to see how many people came out just to see us perform.

We must thank all of those who came out to see us and we can’t wait to perform for you again.

Until Next time Blessings and Respect!

Now mento meets an ultra-enthusiastic Baker and there is Great Expectation of The Jolly Boys album of that name, which they will give St Andrew a live listen to at Redbones Blues Café on Saturday night before heading off on a one-month tour of the United Kingdom, the touring party consisting of three original members and a number of ‘new’ Jolly Boys.

There is a video for the lead-off song, a cover of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, in which a short red-dress-clad young lady undulates to the music, making for a connection among generations across the divide since mento fell out of radio and sound-system favour. More