Justin Hinds

Jamaican ska vocalist

Justin Hinds (7 May 1942 – 16 March 2005) was a Jamaican ska vocalist, with his backing singers the Dominoes. He is best known for his work with Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Records, where his most notable song, "Carry Go Bring Come" recorded in late 1963, went to number one in Jamaica. He recorded seventy singles between 1964 and 1966, and was the most popular artist on the record label.

Hinds was born in Steertown, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. Reviewing it in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Homey lyrics ('Jah jah will spank you') and artful instrumental touches—I like the gentle calypso styled horns and decorative guitar licks—may mean this is a great reggae album. But they may mean it's only a subtle one, and in such an understated genre subtlety risks extinction." Hinds' work with Sonia Pottinger resulted in a series of singles released in the late 1970s, including "Rig Ma Roe Game" and "Wipe Your Weeping Eyes". After the release of Travel with Love recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in 1984, Hinds became less active. His final studio album Know Jah Better was released in 1992, but he worked on Wingless Angels with other Jamaican musicians, which was produced by Keith Richards in the early 1990s. In 1997, he toured the US for the first time and he released a couple of live albums in the early 2000s, including one recorded at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York backed by John Brown's Body. On 23 September 2010, a new posthumous album, Wingless Angels II, was released with "Oh What a Joy, What a Comfort", having guitar work by Keith Richards plus the Jamaican Nyabinghi rhythm Drummers.

Hinds died of lung cancer in March 2005, at the age of 62.