“Hot Steel At Cruz Bay”

Cruz Bay Hot Shots

If you want to hear the real driving steel drums of the U.S. Virgin Islands, you ignore the big bored bands of the tourist hotels and look for a swinging bunch of amateurs in a small town bar or dance hall.

One such steel band is Charlie Prentice’s “Hot Shots”. They play Thursday and Saturday nights at Eric Christian’s “Hilltop,” perched on the side of a hill overlooking the town of Cruz Bay on the island of St. John.

Their instruments are strictly home-made — 55-gallon steel oil drums sawed in half. A circular arrangement of raised bumps is hammered into the head of the drum, many small bumps for the higher-pitched “piano drum,” a few large bumps for the lower bass drums. The drums are tuned by banging on the top or bottom of a bump with a ball-peen hammer until the desired pitch is obtained. The drum is played with two short, soft-headed mallets. The only other instruments used by the Hot Shots are a pair of maracas and the “steel” — a horseshoe struck with a metal bar and damped with the other hand.

This recording was made on a portable tape recorder during a typical Saturday night at Eric’s. The audience is an equal mixture of neatly dressed islanders and sloppily dressed tourists from the Caneel Bay hotel or the Cinnamon Bay campground in Virgin Islands National Park.

The recording is strictly informal — you’ll hear guests talking, laughing, whistling, shouting.

The band’s arrangements are equally informal. At one point Bandleader Charlie Prentice thought he was playing “Michael, Row The Boat,” but Joe Benjy on steel was contributing, the lyrics from “The Old Rugged Cross take my body but not my soul, hallelujah.”

This music is markedly different from the calypso rhythms of the British West Indies. The Cruz Bay Hot Shots in particular exhibit a fascinating combination of intricate Latin-American rhythms with the spontaneous driving energy that characterized the best of New Orleans and Chicago Dixieland.

“Eric, another round of planter’s punches, please — and see what the boys in the band will have.”

“Holiday in the West Indies”

Calypso Carnival

The warm color and exotic spell of the West Indies conjure up a multitude of pleasures for even the most seasoned world-traveler. There is hardly another scenic region order the sun that has preen flattered with no many romantic phrases! All are eminently deserved, for this is “the land of the tropical moon,” ”the glorious climate of romance.” “the home of rhythmic music,” “the American Mediterranean,” et cetera.

The main islands of the West Indies arc; of course, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas –each suggesting glamorous associations of its cross, and earls presenting a stunning variety of natural beauties. The luxuriant tropical foliage, the winds rustling through the palms, the special quality of the sunlight, the perfumed air, anti the lavish specialties of foods and drinks are perhaps tire most memorable features of this ideal holiday playground.

While the beauty of nature in tire West. Indies is a heart-warming joy, the history of civilization on tire islands is a fascinating study, including the Spanish conquest, and the fabulous adventures of pirates and colonists.

Most of all, the West Indies represent a world of exotic music and exciting rhythms. In this recording we present a Carnival of Calypsos, the native music of Trinidad, a West Indies island just a few miles off the coast of Venezuela. Although Calypso music has a remote origin, it did not begin to attract attention in America until the 1930’s, when it was heard by way of records with strange titles, strange melodies, and even more strangely accented syllables. The Calypso singer particularly delighted in using gaudy words to embellish topical subjects; he loved to mingle such abstract ideas as Love, Hunger, Death, and Pleasure with such daily doings as lime-cooking, tire arrival of celebrities, the problems of married life, casual killings, and carefree irresponsibility.

The singers were accompanied by a small band — usually three or four instruments and a rhythm section which included a couple of Afro–American implements — and these bands gave out with a lively beat which was partly Latin and partly pure African.

The words and music caught on and became increasingly popular. Calypso songs may differ in themes and musical details, but all have the original touch and what someone has called the “thistle burr” rhythm, a rhythm which sticks in the mind. All Calypso singers have special names, and practically all Calypso songs arc extemporized. Frequently the singers have a “war,” in which the participants sake the platform and challenge each other. They “debate” in song, and the accepted tent of superiority is tire singer’s ability to improvise on the spur of the moment on any subject which comes to hand.

Someone has said that the Calypso is to the West Indian what the Spiritual is to the American Negro. This is possibly too large a claim, but there is no doubt that the rhythmic pulsations, the curious subjects, and the surprising lyrics intake them different from any other music of its kind.

Among the most noted, as well as the most expert exponents of Calypso-singing are such veterans as Wilmoth Houdini, an original singer and composer of West Indian melody, who was born in. Brooklyn, but moved to Trinidad when only two years old; “Lord Beginner,” the veteran Calypsonian whose real name is Egbert Moore, “Lord Kitchener,” the young, Alwyn Roberts, whose recordings have brought hurt world-wide renown; “The Lion,” Rafael de Leon, whose great career in the United States stretches back to the 1930’s, and “The Iron Duke,” or Brylo Ford, who, at 73, is an old-time Trinidadian with a deep love for the old songs he on well remembers.

“Folklore Melodies”

Marie Richards

It is with great pleasure and pride that the Virgin Islands Music Company presents this album by Marie Richards.

From the Virgin Islands comes songs and melodies composed, played, and sung by Marie Richards, who through her untiring efforts to help her fellow man, as a nurse lost her sight. Even though she has been blind form many years, she wears a smile and is always willing to give a helping hand when she can.

Marie is often seen at charitable affairs dressed in her Carnival costume beating her drum or strumming her guitar and singing her folk songs which are so near to her heart. The songs are about the food the Virgin Islanders enjoy, places in the Islands, Carnival & History of the Islands.

“FOLKLORES MELODIES” for dancing, easy listening, or a valuable collectors album.

Ladies Storytelling at Bethany Church Hall, November 10, 2009

“There is no gift so small that it cannot be given.” This is the sentiment that rang out clearly from the Ladies’ Storytelling at the Society’s November 10th Membership meeting. I am very grateful to the articulate and engaging Storytellers; as we enter the holiday season (many of us with less holiday in our season due to the economy), they reminded me that having only what you need, and sharing it with others creates happiness.

Beverly Biziewski, our capable Vice President, masterminded the Ladies’ Storytelling evening, and we are hoping it will become an annual kickoff event. Andromeada Keating Childs (Board Member Emeritus) was the gracious moderator. Andro, Edna O’Connor Freeman, Naomi O’Connor Varlack, Alice Rhymer O’Connor, Eulita Hansby Jacobs, Shirley Frazier Sewer, and Yvonne Hodge Wells told about living on St John in the middle decades of 1900—living in a smaller place with fewer people, no doctors and no automobiles; walking to a smaller school where teachers ruled with rulers and strict discipline; being mostly self–sufficient for food and for getting all the chores done; and enjoying the little things that made their upbringing on St John so unique.

The full audio recording of the Storytelling and pictures of the Storytellers is posted here for your personal listening enjoyment, due to Bill Stelzer’s professional recording and photography, and to Peter Burgess’ web mastery. Please give it a listen!

“The West Indian Cottage: Vernacular Architecture in The Virgin Islands”

Islands Resources Foundation

Title: “The West Indian Cottage; Vernacular Architecture in The Virgin Islands.”
Produced by: The Island Resources Foundation, St. Thomas
Funding: Supported by a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC
Date: 1981
Director: Doug White
Program Historian: George F. Tyson Jr.
Written by: Doug White & George Tyson
Narrated by: Joe Potter
Special appearances by: Guy Benjamin, Windfield James, Robert deJonge, Robert Brown, William Chapman & Claudette Lewis.
Run time: 30 minutes
Note: See The Island Resources Foundation website at www.irf.org for additional publications of projects they have been funding since their founding in 1972.

“Where The Trade Winds Blow: CCC Activities in the Virgin Islands”

Emergency Conservation Work Group

Title: “Where The Trade Winds Blow: CCC Activities in the Virgin Islands.”
Produced by: Emergency Conservation Work Group
Funding: United States Department of the Interior
Run time: 8 minutes