Married for over 55 years, Winston Dias knows when his spouse makes a suggestion, it is usually a good thing. Some years ago, while singing Mac Davis’ version of Let’s Keep it That Way, his wife Kathleen and daughter Georgia encouraged him to cover the song.

He took their advice and recorded his self-produced cut at Willie Lindo’s Heavy Beat studio in South Florida. Mixed at singer/producer Leroy “Artist” Brown’s studio in Kingston, it was recently released by Tad’s International Record.

“My wife and daughter heard me singing the song and recommended I record it, because they said it was a real love song,” Dias recalled in an interview with Observer Online.

It is his first solo release in some time, after spending several years as lead singer with legendary rocksteady harmony trio, The Melodians.

Dias long admired Let’s Keep it That Way which was originally done by American country singer Tanya Tucker in 1977. Davis, Canadian country singer Anne Murray and reggae singer Boris Gardiner, have also done versions of the popular ballad.

The South Florida-based Dias has been singing for 60 years, scoring a hit single in the early 1960s with Cericy Tea, a ska song. In 1968, he migrated to Canada where he was part of the Toronto reggae scene for 10 years before settling in the United States.

Prior to joining The Melodians with founder Trevor McNaughton and Taurus Alphonso, Dias also performed with legendary soul group, The Drifters.

Howard Campbell