A sporadic writer, singer Kenne Blessin made a big effort to compose most of the tracks on his second album. That album, Caught My Attention, was released in February by Dacosta Muzic.

But for a cover of Barrington Levy’s Vice Versa Love, the Atlanta-based Jamaican wrote all songs on the 14-piece set.

Even then, he took some liberties with the 1993 single, which remains a show-stopper for Levy.

“Maybe one or two words were changed, and it wasn’t done on a reggae beat before. It wasn’t something that was even planned; I just heard the rhythm, and that was the song that came to me. I don’t know why,” said Kenne Blessin.

Caught My Attention was released seven years after Get Up & Go, his first album. For the follow-up, he worked with Paul Frederick from the United States Virgin Islands, who also lives in Atlanta, and Dominic Gall from the United Kingdom.

There is a major creative difference between the albums.

“For Caught My Attention, everything just flowed. There was no writer’s block or any hiccups getting the words together. It was natural, most of the words were not even written down,” Kenne Blessin explained.

Born in Kingston but raised in St Thomas, he grew up on the songs of Bob Marley, Toots And The Maytals, Sizzla, Beenie Man and Snoop Dogg. While living in Antigua, where he played in a band, Kenne Blessin developed an appreciation for soca and rock music.

The album contains ballads like Falling For You and Be With You, as well as My Love Will Never Die, a reggae version of a soca track he recorded while living in Antigua.

Kenne Blessin has also released one EP, Millions, in 2020.

— Howard Campbell