Back in the 1970s a group of singers arrived on the Barbados stage with a powerful message.
Full of energy and enthusiasm, and influenced by a dynamic group from Jamaica calling themselves Sing Out Jamaica, talented singers from across Barbados came together and formed Sing Out Barbados.
Their motto Up With People bore a message of upliftment. It was in keeping with the Moral Rearmament initiatives of the late Sir Conrad Hunte who, in association with the Lions Club of Barbados, had brought Sing Out Jamaica here.
Today those early voices may have lost their richness and all but one are no longer part of Sing Out Barbados, yet the chorale survives and thrives.
On its 40th anniversary, executive and artistic director Keith Squires says with lots of passion in his voice: “Being the oldest folk group, we really cannot afford to die. We love this thing.”
His views reflect earlier sentiments expressed by another Sing Out Barbados member who had said: “We recognised that Sing Out Barbados provided an excellent opportunity for young people to express themselves and channel their energies into doing something meaningful, while also providing a medium for cultural expression and healthy communication between Sing Outers, fellow Barbadians and visitors,” while speaking on the group’s early beginnings.
Though no longer a member, Alwyn Edwards talks about the “disciplined, impactful” group which she joined in 1972 and to whom the church, the politicians and the whole society gave support.
“In those days we did a lot of bandwagons, we would go to a lot of the esplanades, we would perform on the Cave Shepherd balcony, and the whole of Barbados looked forward to performances by Sing Out Barbados.”
Past and present members give credit to Sam Taitt, whom some contend to be the founder of Sing Out Barbados. The group had a dramatic shift in direction when Taitt assumed leadership.
Folk songs
In the 1980s Taitt introduced folk, moving away from the moral rearmament-themed songs. He moved to the folk songs and theatre which made Sing Out Barbados one of the most sought after acts on the local entertainment scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Season after season, dinner guests at the Hilton’s Fort Charles Grill and at the hotel’s weekly Bajan Night were wooed with original compositions like Barbados Ah’ Come From, El Verno Del Congo’s Welcome The Morning Sun and The Merrymen’s Beautiful Barbados.
Taitt wrote many of the folk songs and music performed at Club Rockley and the dinner theatre shows at the once popular St Lawrence Gap night spot After Dark and the Colony Club Hotel.
Sing Out Barbados was in big demand on the hotel circuit.
Squires speaks animatedly about that period and the support of late Governor General Dame Nita Barrow, who became patron of the group until her death in 1995.
“We were focusing on dinner theatre because we saw that as the way to go,” says the artistic director who joined in the 1980s when Phil Phillips was at the helm.
Squires is a live wire on stage, part of a choreography that has distinguished Sing Out Barbados as an engaging and highly entertaining folk group.
He has built on the foundation laid by his predecessors but harks back to the theatre production Lick And Lock Up Done Wid staged at Combermere School, the LP and other recordings of folk songs like John Bouley, Better Woman, Long Time Girl and Brother Neddy, the tenor voice of the late lead singer Thelston Daisley soaring above the melodious tones of the group with a favourite song, Together In Peace.
Sing Out was the cradle of some of Barbados’ best known voices – “first lady of song” Carlyn Leacock, Keith Christian (calypsonian Mighty Destroyer), calypsonian El Ponsie, Victor Pigeon Agard, Ann Riley-Fox.
Squires remembers the depth of community support from people like businesswoman Mrs Ram Mirchandani and businessman Ulric Mapp as he paid tribute to a host of others who gave assistance to the group.
But Squires has concerns about the fierce competition between folk and contemporary music among a younger generation of Barbadians.
“We realise that folk music is a dying art. There is only Sing Out and Pride Of Wilson Hill Folk Group. There used to be the Allegro Singers, St Stephen’s Folk Group, the St John Dramatic And Folk Group.”
This is the reason members of Sing Out Barbados continue to sacrifice lunch hours to give performances at schools yearly during the Independence anniversary celebrations. They are intent on perpetuating the folk tradition.
Says Squires: “It is because folk has a historical base. . . . If you do not know your past, you cannot know your future, and it is because we believe that folk educates and we believe the younger folk need to know a bit about their past.
“We need to get the childen involved, because children will tell you that folk music is old music, or foolish music.”
Therefore Squires presses home the point that Li’l Rick’s Guh Down Guh Down in folk is an update on yesterday’s Guh Down To Lowtown, Lowtown.
A 15-track CD to be released in November is a compilation of traditional and contemporary folk as well as gospel music, designed to appeal to that younger audience.
He is disappointed that the Folk Concert has disappeared from the Crop-Over calendar, but believes that groups like Sing Out Barbados and other folk artistes in Barbados can ensure the survival of the art form.
Sing Out Barbados members have never been paid for their contribution over the last 40 years, but they regard performing as “giving back”.
In Squires’ words, “it is not all about performing but being part of the society, and I think this is the focus and the vision that Sing Out had going back to the days of Sam Taitt”.
