The Tamlins
Band. Reggae, roots, dancehall
- Active
- 1969-present
- Also known as
- Tamlins, Carlton Smith, Junior Moore, Derrick Lara, Winston Morgan
The Tamlins are a harmony trio, formed by Carlton Smith and Junior Moore on Whitehall Avenue in Kingston in the late 1960s, who were Peter Tosh's harmony group and the sweet-voiced backing singers on a great many records of the 1970s.
The original trio was Smith, Moore and Winston Morgan. They recorded for Ed Wallace and the Fabulous Five, issued their first album, Black Beauty, in 1976, and made their name as backing singers for John Holt, Barry Biggs, Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, Pat Kelly, Gregory Isaacs and Marcia Griffiths. They sang with Tosh on record and on his international tours until 1983, the year Morgan left and Derrick Lara, formerly the drummer of the Seventh Extension Band, took his place.
Their breakthrough as a front-line act came through Sly and Robbie. Sly Dunbar heard Nina Simone's version of Randy Newman's "Baltimore" in 1979, and the Tamlins cut it at Channel One with Sly and Robbie behind them; issued on the revived Taxi label, it topped the JBC chart for several weeks and was arguably the biggest Jamaican hit of the year. Further hits for Sly and Robbie, among them "Go Away Dream," followed, and for George Phang they covered the Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces." After Tosh they toured for several years with Rita Marley, made an album with the Mighty Diamonds, Back2Back (1999), and have more recently worked with Julian Marley; Smith, Moore and Lara still record and perform together.
Last updated October 21, 2026
Connections
- Dennis Brown (backed)
- Gregory Isaacs (backed)
- Peter Tosh (backed)
- John Holt (backed)
- Marcia Griffiths (backed)
- Delroy Wilson (backed)
- Pat Kelly (backed)
- Sly Dunbar (producer)
- Robbie Shakespeare (producer)
- George Phang (producer)
- Rita Marley (toured with)
- Mighty Diamonds (collaborator)
- Julian Marley (collaborator)
- Channel One (session work)
Notes
- Howard Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore with the Tamlins," Jamaica Observer, August 24, 2019, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2019/08/24/a-trip-to-baltimore-with-the-tamlins/. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 278, calls them "a sweet-harmony" group among the established artists who benefited from Sly and Robbie's approach.
- Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore." On Black Beauty and the singers they backed: "The Tamlins," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tamlins.
- Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore."
- Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore," which says the record "elevated The Tamlins to front line status."
- Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 280.
- Campbell, "A Trip to Baltimore." On Back2Back: "The Tamlins."
