15 years after ‘No Time to Linger’ Terry Linen wants more shows

In 2008, recording artiste Terry Linen released the track No Time to Linger which had people across the world singing along to the melodic, feel-good song. Now 15 years and several other tunes later, the singer says he just wants opportunities to perform for his fans.

Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, he recalled when he first recorded the track.

“One morning before Lloyd Campbell passed away, he sent mi a nice riddim and mi go Clarendon go check what I can put on it. That’s how that vibe came up, so I said I was going to check and I was voicing and say ‘no time to linger’ and that’s how the song came about. And it was about things that I was going through at the time and we just did it in no time,” he reminisced.

“As mi say, a wah mi experience, it is an everyday living, things within everyday life and I put it in the music. So, it came on to the world cause people will go through the same things and have the same experiences, so when it come forward the people just love it like him sing that song for mi to but it is just everyday living. It is not just something wah mi say mi a meditate on that,” he continued.

Born Kiplin Simpson, Linen grew up in the district of Red Bank, where he attended the Red Bank Primary and Red Bank High schools. After completing high school, Linen connected with Black Kat Sound System and that was the genesis of his musical career. Over the years, he has recorded several tunes including Couldn’t Be the Girl for Me and My Love is Your Love. His soulful voice captured the hears of Jamaicans and audiences abroad. In 2022, he released a series of gospel tunes and since the beginning of the year has dropped some new music.

“I have some songs that I am working on right now but I am just waiting for the company to let me know which one it is that they are putting out. I have a song out now named Playing Money Game and there is a new release called Just Say Yes which was released in January,” Linen said.

Nevertheless, according to him, bookings for shows have been slow and have disabled him from doing what he loves to do the most – performing for his fans.

“I love to go out there and perform and I feel like that is the part of the thing that I am not getting any justice in and I want my fans to know that it is not me who no wah come perform make you nah see Terry Linen on no show but you have a handful of people in the business wah just shelf we even though we are good singers. That is fight that I have been getting over the years. I haven’t been getting any shows over the years after I have put in so much of the work and money and energy and everything. That is my problem. I am not getting to do any work at all and sing for the people,” he explained.

“I just did a show in England and the people dem a say them never expect Terry Linen to come out and a shine based on the image that is out there of me. I just think some artiste can say, ‘Terry Linen come open some of the show dem fi me’ and make dem see say a next voice is coming. I just want to go out there and sing music fi my people and make dem feel good. Sometime I feel frustrated and down and I wonder what I am not doing right,” he pointed out.

Still, the hopeful talent is focusing on using his gifts the way God intended.

“Mi still give thanks for life enuh cause we know a lot of people pass and gone. I am still here, so I just know that I am doing God’s work cause mi have a voice that God bless mi with from birth,” he said.

aaliyah.cunningham@gleanerjm.com