Day 265 of 365 Day Jamaican Music Challenge - The Tamlins - Baltimore

While we're on Sly & Robbie let's do a couple more!  The 263rd track in the 365 Day Jamaican Music Challenge is "Baltimore" by The Tamlins.  The Tamlins, composed of Carlton Smith, Junior Moore and Derrick Lara, got together in the 1970s most noticeably serving as back-up singers for Peter Tosh, John Holt, Marcia Griffiths, Pat Kelly and Delroy Wilson.  At the same time they recorded their own material with minimal success until they released "Baltimore," a cover of a song originally written by Randy Newman, for Sly & Robbie in 1979.  Now I don't know if it's because Baltimore is my "hometown" or because this song has such a melancholy and downbeat feel but it is absolutely timeless and powerfully and unfortunately still relevant today.  Any time I've played "Baltimore" while spinning in Baltimore I always get huge props from someone in the audience who feels it like I do and who completely "gets it."  Originally released as a 7" on the Taxi label, it has ended up on a heap of releases over the course of the last 30+ years.