THREE BARBADIAN ENTERTAINERS – Colin Spencer, Smokey Burke and Ian Webster – have remade the popular 1970s ballad Barbados My Island of Dreams.
And Friday, together with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), which funded the production, they launched the CD, produced by Ricky Brathwaite, at Tiami Dockside at the Shallow Draught.
The trio first performed the song nationally as part of a medley at the launch of the 50th anniversary of Independence back in January.
Burke told the media that the song, originally done by June Knight-Inniss, was “one of the most beautiful Barbadian ballads ever recorded” with its “haunting melody” and once “harmonies were put to it” they would give it “a breath of fresh air”.
“The three songs we chose [for the launch] was by a process of elimination. We came up with songs and we found out that other people were doing them and eventually we got three songs that the producers were cool with. We rehearsed them in my kitchen/office and I knew from then that it was going to be a special blend,” Burke said.
Spencer said he was “extremely delighted” to be on the project and noted that they first performed the “very beautiful song” at a Christmas event and got good response.
The entertainers are encouraging the radio stations to diversify their music as the aim was not only to take the older generation on a trip down memory lane, but to reach the young demographic who had never heard the song.
Burke said: “I feel in 2016 we are heading towards being a First World country and if we continue like this we would be the only first country in the world that . . . plays its own music twice a year.”
Spencer said they were hoping the radio stations would play the song and others because they “were important to who we are as a people and important to our culture as well”.
Webster was absent from the launch. (GBM)
