Though Westbound Train emerged from the same Boston ska scene that gave birth to acts like Bim Skala Bim and the Mighty Bosstones, their take on the genre is derived less from the punk-era social satire of second-wave ska than it is from the soothing rhythms and virtuosic instrumental interplay of the original ska. Though early efforts like 2002’s SEARCHING FOR A MELODY and 2004’s FIVE TO TWO drew on the excitable, shouted vocal style pioneered by Boston ska scene founders Bim Skala Bim, their subsequent albums, particularly 2006’s TRANSITIONS, saw the group beginning to take Jamaican ska more seriously, and exploring the subtle, jazz-derived textures of Jamaican instrumentalists like Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso.