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Dave Martins – a living legend

May 07, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I was privileged to be among a large West Indian audience listening to the legendary Guyanese singer/songwriter Dave Martins at the Mangoville in New York recently. The tour was made to promote his new CD: Back Home.
As a singer/songwriter myself, Dave Martins inspired me musically more than anyone else, and I was fortunate to have seen many of his performances over the years throughout the Caribbean and also in New York with the famed Tradewinds band he founded. His new compositions are all focused on Guyana, hence the title of the album.
Although I believe the mixing of a few songs could have been better, and a few clearly lacked the vocal harmony of that we’ve grown accustomed to by members of The Tradewinds, the CD is highly recommended for all Guyanese to own; and I’m not suggesting bootleg copies…your readers should go out there and each buy a copy to offset the production cost of this album and show support and appreciation for Guyanese culture.
As always, there is a lot of humour in his songs despite the seriousness of the subject. One of the songs: Turn Back paints a very graphic picture of the unsightliness of illegal dumping of garbage.
This is most disturbing when one remembers Georgetown as the ‘Garden City of the Caribbean’. I sincerely hope this song gets maximum air time to embarrass the perpetrators, and get them to stop littering.
Although all the songs are beautifully written, my favourite tracks are: ‘Oi Brazil’, ‘In This Place’ and ‘Is We Own’ – this one reminds me of his very popular ‘Not a Blade of Grass.’
Dave Martins is famous for his renditions of witty and insightful songs of Caribbean life that are popular throughout the region, and he has certainly earned his place among the best creative Caribbean talents of all times.
Over the years, Guyana has produced some great talents in music.
To name a few: Nesbit Chhangur – the country singer whose songs tell the sad tale of racial riots in the 60’s; King Fighter (Shurland Wilson) who drew upon Guyanese folk melodies and lyrics to develop his calypsos; Dennis DeSouza – renowned Guyanese and Caribbean pianist, and recipient of the 1998 Sunshine Award; Eddie Grant; Mark Holder; Johnny Braff; Calypsonians Lord Canary (Malcolm Corrica) and Lady Guymine (Monica Chopperfield); and Ramjohn Holder – UK based folklorist, folksinger and actor, popular for his role as Pork Pie in the British sitcom Desmonds.
However none, in my opinion, have done more to capture and bring about an awareness of Guyanese and West Indian culture, than the most prolific song writer Guyana has ever known…the living legend: Dave Martins. His knowledge of West Indian life is truly remarkable, and most of us have experienced some aspect of the things he sings about.
Dave Martins is a patriot whose songs celebrate Guyana. Along with his band The Tradewinds, he has preformed in many places around the world; he has met with presidents and prime ministers, but he has never lost the common touch.
You can hear the local dialect as he sings or whenever he cracks a joke or tells a story as he often does.
Dave Martins is Guyanese to the core and acclaims it proudly!
He is the recipient of the nation’s Golden Arrowhead of Achievement and the Wordsworth McAndrew Award given by the Guyana Folk Festival Committee.
Dave Martins ‘is we own’.
Harry Gill

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