Ernie's El Dorado Pt 13 - Guyana

And so we trundle on. This time out we are in Guyana, which perches proudly at the top of South America and invites you to admire its rain forests and biodiversity, its healthy oil fuelled economy and its many fine cricketers. Anything but Jonestown.

Like several recent posts in the series it was already going to be tricky to track down enough music for Guyana. Matters were made worse when notorious expansionist Charity Chic parked his tanks on my lawn in much the same way as Mr Plump did in Guyana's western neighbour (although to be fair to CC he didn't break into my house and kidnap me).

There is some overlap between the artists featured in the two posts, which is either a sign of shared impeccable taste or limited supply (or both). But unlike CC I have decided to exclude artists born in Guyana who left as children and whose whole careers were in the UK or US. So its goodbye to the likes of Eddy Grant, R.B. Greaves, Ram John Holder and Mad Professor.

I nearly accidently broke my own rule by including Colle Kharis in the Mandatory American Reggae spot and it was only when I was researching the post that I discovered his family moved to the US in 1990. It is a bit tough on Mr Kharis so I may feature him in his own right in the future. In the meantime check out his "Caribbean Bloodline".

On to the official entries. We will start proceedings with an excellent album that has featured here before - "Fighting For Survival" by Yoruba Singers. The band were formed in Georgetown in 1971 and despite their name had no direct links from Nigeria, home of the Yoruba people, but identified with the area from which so many of the African diaspora in Guyana were originally descended. 

Their sound was a mix of local folk music, Afrobeat, reggae and lots more besides. "Fighting For Survival" which came out in 1981 is their career highlight - I could have picked pretty much any track from that album - but their 1974 debur "Ojinga's Own" is worth checking out as well.

If that description of the Yoruba Singers' sound prompted you to wonder what the folk music of Guyana sounds like, wonder no more. The Young Ones of Guyana are here to demonstrate with this traditional number which can be found on their 1970 album "On Tour".

While a significant number of Guyanese are of African descent, they are not the largest ethnic group in the country. Descendants of indentured labourers from India account for about 45% of the population compared to 35% Afro-Guyanese (the others are indigenous or of mixed heritage).

There have been clashes between the two main ethnic groups over the years, inevitably stirred up by politicians. One such incident back in the 1960s was reported on by Nesbit Chhangur, who for reasons best known to himself chose it set it to the tune of "Devil Woman" by Marty Robbins.

Staying in the 1960s for a moment, Guyana's greatest calypsonian King Fighter was at the peak of his powers having relocated to Trinidad in the late 1950s to do battle with the best in the business. This particular track comes from a compilation on Soul Jazz records called "Calypso: Musical Poetry In The Caribbean 1955-69", but there is much more from Fighter on the misleadingly titled "Trinidad Calypso Devil".

The modern equivalent of calypso is of course soca and there is plenty of that in Guyana as Adrian Dutchin demonstrates. Those of you who follow Selector Andre on Instagram will know that Mr Dutchin is riding high at the top of the charts right now with "Born And Grow" but we've picked an oldie but goodie for you. It dates from 2011 and can be found on a compilation called "Dis Soca Baddy".

Understandably the Indo-Guyanese didn't want to be left in the kitchen at the soca party so they got together with the large Indian diaspora in Trinidad to develop a style called "chutney". Charity Chic went big on chutney when he was in Guyana but I don't have his robust constitution so I'm restricting myself to this track by Terry Gajraj. It is pleases your palate you can find more on "Chutney Rhythms Vol. 1".

Speaking of Charity Chic, the last two acts both featured in his tribute to the music of Guyana. Eddie Hooper was a stalwart of the scene in the 1970s and 1980s who blended disco, calypso and reggae into a style that he called "loopie" (although I'm not sure anyone else did to be honest). This track dates from 1987 and can be found on "This Is Eddie Hooper", a compilation of some of his best work. Lyrically it has echoes of King Fighter.

Finally in the MAR spot we have Natural Black. Having been blessed with the birth name Mortimer Softley he foolishly abandoned it for his rather generic pseudonym. There is nothing generic about his music however, he has been producing high grade reggae for over twenty years now. We present the title track of his 2018 album "Eyes A Look" for your delectation and delight today.

"Revolution Day" - Yoruba Singers

"Yellow Girl" - The Young Ones Of Guyana

"A Guyanese Lament (Tain Public Road)" - Nesbit Chhangur

"People Will Talk" - King Fighter

"Plenty Wukkin Up" - Adrian Dutchin

"Samdhin Teree" - Terry Gajraj

"Nosey People" - Eddie Hooper

"Eyes A Look" - Natural Black

If all of that has left you thinking Guyana might be worth visiting, let Karissia Couchman and friends provide you with more information about what you can expect if you do go.

Miniature Namesakes

Rol over at My Top Ten is responsible for two of my favourite recurring blog series - 'Saturday Snapshots', where you pit your wits against his fiendish clues to work out the connection, and 'Namesakes' on Tuesdays.

As the title suggests, in 'Namesakes' Rol tracks down clips of different acts with the same name. Its such a simple idea it makes you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself (ahem). 

By way of a tribute this post features namesakes called Lambchop, but unlike Rol I don't have the patience to track down loads of them so you are just getting two.

"Your F***ing Sunny Day" - Lambchop

"Superstar In France" - Lambchop

Both tracks by Lambchop #1 come from their 1997 album "Thriller". I'm told that has a namesake as well.

Pun Fun 3: The Contenders

Voting is now open for Pun Fun 3. Readers were challenged to insert a musical instrument related pun into a popular song title. 

And what a musical melange they have come up with between them. The list of instruments reads like the sleeve notes for a dreadful 1970s jazz fusion album or a one-off collaboration between the Mahavishnu, Penguin Cafe and Electric Light Orchestras.  

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry and a very warm welcome to Mark who has been a member of the voting panel previously but has joined the ranks of competitors for the first time.

I mentioned last time out that if the number of entries increased I might ask you all to select your top five rather than just your top three as has been the case to date so you can spread the love a bit wider. Let's give that a go. If it leaves you paralysed by indecision we can go back to the top three next time.

Voting is open to all readers not just those of you who entered. Let me know your top five in order of preference. I'll award 7 points for your first choice, 5 for second and then 3, 2 and 1 for the rest.

You can either submit your votes in the comments section below or by email to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk if you would rather preserve the sanctity of the secret ballot. 

The deadline is next Sunday (25 January) and we will announce the results a week today. 

Here are the contenders, listed alphabetically by artist. 

1. While My Sitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles
2. Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into Keytar - Billy Ocean
3. Hanging On The Xylophone - Blondie
4. Cello I Love You - The Doors
5. Trumpet Up - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
6. Return to Fender - Elvis Presley
7. Rowche Drum Bell - The Fall
8. How Can You Mend A Broken Harp - Al Green
9. That Drummer Feeling - Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
10. Whistle Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
11. Timpani, I'm Not Your Daddy - Kid Creole & The Coconuts 
12. Mindless Violins - Newtown Neurotics
13. Man on Bassoon - REM
14. Get Hofner My Cloud - The Rolling Stones
15. Not Too Bassoon - Throwing Muses

Maybe when this is all over we can keep the band together and take the show on the road.

Birthday Alert

Before we get into today's post, a quick reminder for anyone planning to submit an entry for Pun Fun 3 who has not yet done so. The deadline is this Sunday (18 January). All the details are in last Monday's post.

We now return to our scheduled programme. 

This blog turns 17 tomorrow. I didn't want to wait until then to mention it as it would just disappear beneath Rol's Saturday Snapshots, Charity Chic's Saturday Shuffle, Swiss Adam's Oblique Saturdays etc. I need a bit of attention on my blog birthday and this is the only hope of getting any.

"Sweety Seventeen" - Behroze Chatterjee

"Only Seventeen" - Nina Hagen

"Seventeen" - Tomberlin

Here are some more 17ers with a song whose message is sadly at least as relevant today as when it was first recorded 45 years ago (and one that hopefully would have warned Liesl off Rolf had it been around back in 1938).   

A Vanload Of Songs

Confession time. While Ernie Goggins is of course my real name I have invented a nom de plume which I use on things like passports and legal documents in order to avoid being harassed by obsessive fans while I go about my day to day life.

Inevitably there are other people with same name. One released a few unsuccessful singles in the 1970s, one is currently a breakout star in American college football and another one sells used trucks in south-east England.

It is the latter who inspired this post. That and finding a compilation CD of the great Cuban stalwarts Los Van Van in a local charity shop in the weekend. The CD is called "La Colección Cubana" and dates from 1998. These tracks were originally released in 1984 and 1986 respectively.

"Anda, Ven Y Muévete" - Los Van Van

"Cuéntame" - Los Van Van

My namesake has asked me to mention to you that many other Vans are available, including one with a heated interior.

Pun Fun 3: The Theme

After a break for the festive season we are back with a third edition of Pun Fun, the exciting feature where I give you a theme and you adapt the title of a well-known song to reflect that theme. 

Having enjoyed a bumper crop of fruit and vegetable puns last time out I have selected a theme with a more obvious link to the blog (and those of a fair number of participants):

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The rules are the same as last time. You each have one entry only, to be sent to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 18 January. Voting will start next Monday.

I don't suppose you need help identifying musical instruments but just in case you do the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology lists loads on its website, where you can also listen to clips of many of them. 

You might be inspired to finds puns for the zaqq (Maltese bagpipe), the torupill (Estonian bagpipe) or even the mittlealtersackpfeife (German medieval bagpipe). Or you may prefer just to stick with the old joanna.

"Piano" - Jimmy Webb

"Piano Piano" - Ron Rude

"And The Piano's Playing" - The Lonely Paupers

What Walter Wants...

In Wednesday's post on the music of Guatemala I observed that some of the countries on our ongoing tour of the Americas may no longer exist by the time we get to them if Mr Trump has his way.

In response to this Walter commented that "we should post music from Greenland while it still belongs to Denmark". He followed this up with a series of direct messages to me in which he stated that if I did not do so voluntarily all options are on the table including military intervention to take direct control of the blog. 

Some might say that having Walter in charge of the content here might be an improvement and I would not necessarily disagree. But I value my independence and world peace so here is some music from Greenland. It may be the start of a slippery slope but that is a risk I'm willing to take.

In chronological order: the grand old man of Greenland music Rasmus Lyberth with a track from his 2019 album "Inuunerup Oqarfigaanga"; some hip-hop from 1996 courtesy of Nuuk Posse and their classic album "Kaataq"; Nive & The Deer Children and their 2016 album "Feet First" on which Howe Gelb and John Parish have production credits; and bringing us bang up to date Varna GL whose latest album "Sila" was released just three weeks ago.

"Uanga Hai Hai" - Rasmus Lyberth

"Inupiluaqqat" - Nuuk Posse

"Tulugaq" - Nive & The Deer Children

"Sarsuanera" - Varna GL

For the avoidance of doubt I should make it clear that all that stuff about Walter's expansionist tendencies was obviously nonsense. In real life he's one of the nicest men you could hope to meet and not in the least bit orange.

On an unrelated matter I got my first gig of the year under my belt on Wednesday - four acts on the bill at the Shacklewell Arms raising funds for WarChild. Its not a night that will live long in the memory but they were all perfectly pleasant. 

For me the pick of the bunch was probably Alice Costelloe whose debut album "Move On With The Year" comes out on 6 February. Here she is with her brand new video. Mister F preferred Suki Emmanuelle so I've added the only video of hers I could find in the interests of balance.  

Ernie's El Dorado Pt 12 - Guatemala

After a short break we are back behind the wheel and making our way around continental America. I thought about bringing the Venezuelan leg forward in case it doesn't exist by the time we get to the letter V but in the end decided to stick with alphabetical order.

So this time out we are in Guatemala, which like many other countries in the region has suffered from US foreign policy and corporate greed. American interference throughout most of the 20th century contributed to a regular series of civil wars. Fortunately things have been relatively stable since a peace deal in 1996, with just old-fashioned corruption to worry about these days.

Guatemala is one of a number of countries for which I have struggled to find music online. While the Wikipedia entry for the music of Guatemala lists many names, a lot of them do not seem to be available though the usual channels. So I make no claims that what follows is representative, its just stuff I found and liked.

We will start with a couple of traditional(ish) acts. Jursino Cayetano is a Garifuna musician, a people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry who have a minority presence in several countries in Central America. This track comes from the same compilation that we featured when we were back in Belize on the second leg of our journey.

The San Lucas Band were a shoo-in for the post when I read the blurb for their album "La Voz de las Cumbres": "The first reissue of cult 1974 recordings of a Mayan brass band playing funeral dirges and popular songs in its distinctive extended harmonic and rhythmic style". I have nothing to add.

Next we have a couple of bands featured on a series of six track EPs titled "Sonidos Perdidos de Guatemala 1969 - 1989". There are four volumes - the link is to the first one - and they are a sort of companion piece to the "Sonidos Perdidos de Centroamérica" compilation that we featured when we were in El Salvador (and will no doubt do so again). Like that album, they were released by Tujaal Sounds and are available on a name your own price basis.

Apple Pie were formed in 1967 by the classic line-up of Gentry Ordoñez, Rico Molina, Wicho Zelaya, and Tito Henkle. The track below was first released as a single in 1970. Of Mino I can find out nothing at all.

Probably the best known internationally of the artists being featured today is Gaby Moreno, who won a Grammy for the best Latin Pop album in 2024 and was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women of the Year the same year. This track from her 2012 album "Postales" is a cover of an old Cuban standard that has also been covered by the likes of Bing Crosby, Cliff Richard, Mari Wilson, Cake and Dennis Brown. I feel a Single Song Sunday coming on.

Sticking with the distaff side of the Guatemalan scene we next bring you Di WAV (Daniela Carpio to her Mum and Dad) and her distinctive brand of indie pop. The EP from which this track comes, "Masoquista", was the 18th most streamed Guatemalan record on Spotify in 2019, so you really have no excuse not to have heard of it before now.

Our penultimate act hail from the city of San Marcos in the west of the country. The Crystal Stones describe their music as a fusion of Rock-Pop, Noise Rock, Post Rock and Rock-Funk, or maybe just Rock for short. Today's track comes from their 2021 album "The Love Club".

We finish as always with the MAR slot, filled admirably on this occasion by La Dubvolution with a track from their 2011 album "3 Es Sonsuelto En Souldub". Its one of the better MAR entries of the series to date and is well worth a listen. 

"Fádiri" - Jursino Cayetano

"El Son De Los Altos" - The San Lucas Band

"Llamate Hombre" - Apple Pie

"Nuestros Cuerpos Vamos A Quemar Al Sol" - Mino

"Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" - Gaby Moreno

"Dominos" - Di WAV

"Metaphor" - The Crystal Stones

"Soledad Enferma" - La Dubvolution

Alela We Will Do Our Best

Last Friday's post included a video by Alela Diane on which quite of few of you commented favourably and expressed your intention to explore her back catalogue. I'm here to help with the exploration. We start with a track apiece from "To Be Still" (2009) and "Cusp" (2018) before going a bit off piste with the third selection. 

In 2013 the venerable Oi! merchants Hard Skin released an album called "On The Balls" and a companion  album "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear" which had the same songs but with the lead vocals handled by assorted female guests. Some were not unexpected - Beki Bondage for example - others like Alela and Joanna Newsom definitely were. Anyway, its a jolly tune but perhaps not for those of you with delicate ears.

"The Alder Trees" - Alela Diane

"Ether & Wood" - Alela Diane

"Two Bob C**t" - Alela Diane & Hard Skin

New Beginnings

We're here to ease you very gently into 2026, although the Slow Motion Cowboys seem confused about the time of year. Possibly they move so slowly that it is still September in their world.

"New Beginning (Oh September)" - Slow Motion Cowboys

"New Beginnings (Russian River Rainbow)" - Larry Jon Wilson