Reintroducing Lymie Murray

Recognized as possessing one of the sweetest voices in Roots Reggae music, Lymie Murray has built up quite the catalog over the years. However, not much is known about how his more than two-decades-long, love affair with music got its start.

“From as long as I can remember, I had a microphone in my hand. High school came and myself and bredrin called Aaron Silk used to be the men in Mandeville, Manchester. We used to be the barbecue kings back in the day,” Lymie adds with a smile. Success, as most can attest, tends to be nonlinear; and Lymie, after the relatively carefree life of high school had to park his singing aspirations, somewhat, and join the 9 to 5 daily workforce. Even then, his love for music never waned and Lymie was soon again thinking again about musical notes, singing on key and rehearsal times. And in 1991, he had his first official recording, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” the B.J. Thomas classic, while trying to balance his work with his passion. “I was 22 or 23 when we decided that it was time. So I walked out of the formal 9 to 5 situation and just dived head first into music, if you know what I mean,” said Lymie.

He then sought to use the legendary Skateland venue located right in the middle of Half Way Tree, the same spot the likes of Tyrone Taylor, Beres Hammond and musicians of similar ilk used to gather and perform, as the place to launch his career. Almost as if it were kismet, Lymie had the chance to begin to record “Happy Days,” his first album in 1994; just a little bit after his workforce exit, four years before its actual release in 1998 on Shangul Records. Shangul, at the time operated by Desmond Lawson, had Lymie as its number one act and priority at the time. In between the recording and the release of “Happy Days,” he toured with the Skool band worldwide as its lead singer, and it was on the road where he met the likes of Freddie McGregor, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths, just to name a few. Such an impression was left by Lymie on his fellow reggae acts, that it was just a short time after “Happy Days” release that he was asked by Freddie McGregor to record under his Big Ship imprint. Leading into the 2000’s, Lymie began opening for Freddie on the road while doing some backing vocals for him as well. During his time with Big Ship, Lymie released “Start All Over” on the Jet Star label in England in 2000 and “Only Conversation” on VP Records in 2001. Unfortunately, Lymie’s time with Big Ship was short lived; in 2003, both groups parted ways. It wasn’t long, however, before Lymie found himself under the tutelage of another reggae music giant, Bobby Digital.

“He is a phenomenal producer and just has a keen ear. So I learnt a whole lot about production from Bobby.” During this time, working with Bobby Digital allowed Lymie to move from just a mere vocalist to a man who could handle the production of a full track by himself as a singer, a writer and even dabbling as an instrumentalist. This gave his career new life as Lymie could now, in essence, be his own boss. Also, with the help of well-known radio personality Denise ‘Isis’ Miller, as his long term manager, he has a level of control over the direction of his music, only few artistes could only dream about. Starting in 2009, Lymie began to commute regularly between California and Jamaica establishing a base for his music on the West Coast and producing several albums, including the critically acclaimed “Deeper Roots” and “The Harvest Moon” albums, both under the I Dwell label house. Subsequently, opening the door for Lymie to take another step forward with the creation of his very own label Lymelight and the establishment of his Paul Hugh (Lymie’s given name) Foundation, which is geared towards elevating young minds in Jamaica. Throughout, Lymie Murray remains humbled to see where his love for reggae music has taken him thus far, but he is excited to see what is next on the horizon.