Soca Ministry

Six years ago, The Experience was a fledgling tent struggling against the flood of disapproval from the Christian brotherhood, doggedly pushing forward with a Ministry that in the eyes of our conservative, provincial Christians was tantamount to promoting the sin of revelry.  The tent management, I was told by a friend who sang in  in those pioneering days, scrutinized the lyrics to make sure not only that there was nothing offensive but that the song was ‘Christian enough” and had an overtly Christian message.  This year’s Experience Tent has the usual crop of “ make God the centre of your life” lyrics but it was significant that a number of songs either did not have an overt Christian message or paid lip service to being Christian calypsos by throwing in a few, pro Jesus lines here and there.

“Crying Shame” by Trouble was  one of the songs  that had a missionary message. In the song the persona is a woman who has led a life of sin but returns to the loving arms of her faithful and forgiving husband who welcomes her back lovingly to his home. Those with a less literal interpretation might see the song as a metaphor for the nation which has allowed itself to be corrupted by evil doing before being saved by Jesus. I must say that on judging night the singer’s attire of a form fitting hot pink halter neck dress with a thigh high split up the front somewhat undermined her message of being a woman now living in ‘virtuosity’.

Bajan social commentary calypsos tend to be preachy, a form of lyrical laziness in my view when there are such tools as metaphor, euphemism, irony and satire in the arsenal of the song writer. They help the lyricist achieve the same ends with far more subtlety and entertainment value.  A diet of exhortation tends to be boring, both in church and calypso tent, and calypsonians would do well to study the lyrical master Jesus Christ who told deceptively simple stories to get his message across and knew how to make a line stick in the heads of his disciples.

Sammy Jane with her “Twenty Twenty” and Enabong with “This is Barbados” were among the stellar performers of the night. Their experience and comfort on stage was obvious. With no reliance on costume or dramatic introduction, SJ engaged the audience in time travel to the future where the ills seeded in our country today are bearing fruit. With wit and humour, she had the audience eating out of her hand.  Enabong’s song details her love for Barbados and is a delightful catalogue of the good things that make us Bajans. Her optimism and joy was a contrast to De Salt’ s Pray Fuh De Nation and Aleph’s ‘Gone to de Dogs

Poor diction continues to be the bane of some calypsonians. While every performer in this tent could carry a tune, many of them muffled their lines. I was sitting behind the judges during the performance, hoping for the sake of the singers that the judges had the lyrics beforehand. De Salt and Culture Man  need to be more crisp and clear in their delivery.

Brother Orville (Roger Gittens) and his ‘granddaughter’  Shontae were the comedy duo of the night. Their energetic and earsplitting comic performance energized the audience and had a definite Christian message. In Orville’s later performance”Do Not Tell Me To Sit Down where he was supported by a group of energetic ‘senior citizens’, he did not know when to stop and the performers continued to shriek at the top of their voices long after the audience got the point.

Because of the diverse nature of the performances in the tents the  role of MC in maximizing the tent experience for the patron cannot be underestimated.  The Experience’s MC was affable and has great potential. He was comfortable, confident and energetic on stage and a few of his jokes were even funny. However, there needed to be a more polished segue from performer to performer. Too often it seemed to be church amateur night and as the evening drew to a close and he tired, there were a few gaffes that were (embarrassingly) funny.

The Experience was good, clean family entertainment. If the audience, at times seemed less than energised and the MC seemed a little frazzled, the band was polished and  the judges would have found a decent harvest of talent.