Wise Advice from de Islands

No Ring, No Ting - My mother told a story a few years after my father passed away about a neighbor that propositioned her to move in with him. He wanted companionship and her good cooking. Her response to him was No Ring, No Ting.

Christmas On The Islands – One Christmas, while we were anchored in Trinidad, I noticed many of the cruisers were a little home sick thinking of their families. I personally do not like the cold weather so I wrote the song to compare the differences between Christmas in the North and Christmas on the islands.

A Better Man – This song came to me after hearing some people talking negatively about the people on the islands based on news articles. I truly believe there are more good people in the world than bad. We just hear about the bad ones and it tends to cloud our judgment.

Tribute To The Steelband – I have always wanted to write a song about the steelband. This is my contribution. My wife wanted to emphasize the sound of feet chipping on the pavement. Listen for it at the beginning of the tune and between the verses.

Hear De Rake – The phrase “Hear De Rake” is an island term for listen to the gossip. This is a true story that occurred when I was a young boy. A friend of mine, overhead a policeman making a report about an assault and battery in a domestic dispute and not understanding the term assault and battery, he came back to us with the stories of two people being charged one for assault and one for stealing a car battery.

Just Do It – This is probably as close to a rap song as I would ever get. I wanted to write a song for kids and I wrote this to encourage them to get an education. The idea came to me one day while watching a Nike commercial.

The Secret – This is a true story. While at a party one day there were a group of women just laughing hysterically. It aroused my curiosity and when I went over to hear what was causing them to laugh so much I heard one of the women relating this story. After a while I was also laughing hysterically. This is another topic that you could probably think of many more verses to add to it.

Bumping Carnival – While playing around with the instruments one day, the rhythm got to me and I realized the beat had this bump to it. I decided to write a bumping song.

Unsolicited Advice – I actually started writing this song about a political situation between Trinidad and the USA but my wife advised me to stay out of the politics of the country, so I changed it around to a meddling family member or friend.

Don't Copy My CD – This song sort of explains it all. After the hit “Call Jesse”, I wrote a few more calypsos relating to the cruising lifestyle and would sing them at gatherings. Many cruisers asked me if I would make a CD. After the release of “Calypsos For Cruisers” it occurred to me that their friends would copy my CD so I wrote this song in my defense.