Folk/rock musician Gavin Mendonca has emerged from a hiatus of more than six months revitalized and is currently working on his Christmas special, ‘Folk Up Yuh Christmas with Gavin and Chucky’.
The Christmas special is slated to be aired on the National Communications Network (NCN) and creolerock.com throughout this Christmas season. In addition, Gavin, who last year with bandmate, Chucky released volume one of Guyana folk songs will be working on ‘Folk It Up’ volume two, set for release in 2021. Volume one was released last year at the Guyana Cultural Association’s annual Folk Festival in New York.
The duo who had been playing folk music together for all of last year spent some of their time writing some original songs as well which will be made into an album. The songs are said to be a fusion of Guyanese culture and sounds with some good old Rock and Roll.
As much as the pandemic has forced the singer to put the majority of this year’s plans on hold, he refuses to wait any longer. In fact, the pandemic took a toll on his career, but he shared that with nothing much to do, he turned to gardening which provided the much needed solace.
“Since March I started spending hours in the garden [and] certain disciplines were reintroduced, such as patience and dedication, punctuality and care,” Gavin said. “Rather than sulking and wasting time, I was reconnecting with myself through the time spent in the garden – every single morning as the sun would rise, and every single evening as the old sun would set. It has allowed me the time to contemplate what my next move will be as the pandemic has drastically affected the live entertainment industry. But, after careful consideration and close calls of giving up, my mission remains the same – to contribute to the preservation of folk music, and now more than ever to contribute positive [vibes] to a seemingly downward-spiralling society.”
In early November, Gavin sat down with local podcast ‘Balancing the B.A.R.S’ where he talked about artistes thriving in Guyana. The musician spoke of feeling purposeless at the onset of the pandemic in March and April and went on to add that while many artistes measure their success by money or fame, success for him is finding satisfaction in what he chooses to do. For him that is preserving the Guyanese culture through folk music.
Since trying to find renewed passion in his journey, Gavin has chosen not to be boxed in or limited by the pandemic and as such continues to seek new meanings. Currently he is studying through Coursera and mentioned one of his courses is about copyright.
He and Chucky have also made their live return to the Almond Tree Farmers Market several Saturdays ago. Their Radio Rock N’ Rock programme returns to national radio broadcasting this month.
