Messenjah

Messenjah came together in Ontario during 1980 as one of Canada’s earliest reggae outfits, launched by Jamaican-American Errol Blackwood on vocals and bass together with Rupert Harvey on vocals and guitar. WEA brought the band aboard in 1982 and put out their previously self-issued album Rock You High. Once percussionist Tony King joined, Jam Session surfaced in 1984. Blackwood stepped away two years later to launch a solo career. The remaining members cut Cool Operator in 1987 and Rock & Sway in 1990, enlisting a shifting roster that featured Hal Duggan on keyboards, bass, and vocals, Crash Morgan on drums, Raymond Ruddock on drums, keyboards, percussion, and vocals, Charles Sinclair on bass, Eric Walsh on guitar and vocals, and Haile Yates on percussion.