So It Go

Living in Guyana one has to struggle some days to look past this or that irregularity– street garbage; Exxon flaring; inhumane treatment of animals; etc–but some days the light comes on. 

One of the little known stories in the Dave Martins folder would be the time I spent after graduating from Saints Stanislaus College working for B.G.

Going in, I have heard all the stories about the Pit Bull breed of dogs, with their potential to be aggressive and even dangerous, but my experience with Peppa, the Pit Bull owned by my stepson Alex Arjoon, my wife Annette’s son from her previous marriage, has been a total joy in the going on two years we’ve known her.

1.People see me living here again, and some have said to my face “You had a chance to stay outside bro, what bring you back to this place?”

You’re in Guyana for a week, or for a longer spell Let me give you some background, it will serve you well.

It occurred to me recently, after a long, rambling conversation with a young musician hopeful, that unless one has gone down that road, you have no idea of how very difficult, I would even say daunting, that path is.

We think when something ends in our life That we will be braced for it, but very often that’s not the case We only know when we get the hit.

In the midst of all the continuing malaise triggered by the COVID pandemic here, one of the lesser noted consequences is the effect on the music industry. 

Going in, I admit to being rather easily astonished, so perhaps it’s not strange that I am completely bowled over by some of the actions one sees ordinary citizens in their daily lives delivering to various animals and birds in their care. 

Like most people in their growing up years, I discovered early the influence music can have in our lives, ranging from birthday parties to wedding receptions to special days in the year, and in celebrations big and small in venues ranging from simple to elaborate. Also

Guyana is such a vast and multi-dimensional kind of country that one could a write a column about the different aspects of the place, every week for a year, and still not cover it all. 

Several years ago I played at the funeral of a St Lucian friend who had died after a tough two-year battle with cancer.

It occurred to me recently, after a long, rambling conversation with a young musician hopeful, that unless one has gone down that road, you have no idea of how very difficult, I would even say daunting, that path is.

During my time with the Tradewinds band in North America, I ended up with some lovely “good news about Guyana” stories.

It’s one of the features of daily living that we often look back at our lives and feel fortunate for some of the things that have come our way. 

In years past, hearing outside about my country’s difficulties, I would come home to Guyana with Tradewinds to play music, or just to visit, often very concerned that I would find a joyless, dispirited people.

Following a recent gyaff with my long-time Guyanese musician friend George Jardim, who was asking me about the emergence of the Tradewinds band, I wrote a few lines which I later saw as well-suited to this SO IT GO column.

When you live a long life as I have, in some ways, because of the huge amount of passing time involved, the limits of the brain will come into play and you forget chunks – sometimes trivia, but also very important pieces – of what you went through or learned or overcame, and it takes a remark from a friend, or a reference you see in the press, to remind you of an episode, or even a response to a song, in your own life that should have great relevance for you. 

“What’s your favourite Tradewinds song, and which one you feel has had the strongest reaction?”

This column, which is actually aimed at collaborative work with musicians in general, I owe to my wife Annette Arjoon-Martins, who has been beating the drum, several years now, for taking care of the magnificent natural environment that is Guyana.