Veteran reggae artiste Winston “Midnight Rider” Powell is looking to make an impact with his debut album Midnight Riders Meets the Naram Rhythm Section . It will be released today .

“My hope is that it does well and reaches people who really loves to hear music like this,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The 10-track album is produced by New Zealand-based production label Red Robin Productions.

Midnight Rider explained that he is strategically targeting international markets.

“When doing music, you have to think international. Therefore, what I do is to pay attention to what is happening on the foreign market. Australia has 29 million people and they gave me album of the week. There are no further questions to be asked. That is huge,” said the St Elizabeth native.

Meanwhile, producer Red Robin expressed a piqued interest in working with the artiste.

“We wanted to work with Winston because he had an epic catalogue of over 30 singles and almost all of them were stand out 80s songs. His lyrics from the 80s were often street level lyrics which we wanted to replicate in the modern era,” he said.

This project has been years in the making, after the label connected with the artiste and worked back and forth on the recording process from a distance.

“The album was the culmination of five years of work, we hope the impact of its success in the first month will lead to Winston touring Europe, the US and the Pacific where we continually have requests for him,” the producer added.

With a career dating back to the 1980s, the artiste has gained notoriety on the music scene throughout the years, with his standout rhythms and infectious voice. His past hits include Clash In A Rhythm, Worries In The Dance, Haul And Pull Up, Taxi, Ram It Again and Why Oh Why.

In 2018, he released Bobby Was A Gangster with the label, which is also featured on the album.

Midnight Rider added that he is pleased with the outcome of the project.

“All 10 songs on the album are doing very well but songs like Bob Was a Gangster, Dread in America, Party Next Door, Yaady Skanking and Champion of the Music, all very very good songs. It’s such a compact album that you have to listen. You’ll say you like this one and then you are not sure. These five songs from the album are very outstanding,” he said.