Roatan, Honduras.
Lord Laro, King of the Soca and Calypso music, musical legend of the Caribbean was the feature act at the Shrimp Festival last night here in Roatan. Although I have seen him perform in Belize several times and Miami at least once, there was no way I was going to miss his concert here. I am one of his biggest fans.
His concert was worth waiting for. He rocked the crowd in true Laro fashion. He came on stage around 11:30 after various bands the last a Country & Western band hailing all the way from Tennessee.
I had never heard of them but the one which the Hondurans obviously adored. My friend from Palmetto told me this country band sings the number one country song in Honduras. The name of this artist or the song is no longer a memory of mine (although she told me repeatedly) since my whole excitement & purpose there was to see the Lord.
But for those of you who are not in the know, country & western is alive and popular in Central America and the sound emanating from countless little barrio bars is not uncommon.
With my heart beating faster than if I had just run a 25 mile marathon, the Lord appeared in a vision of white head-to-toe "Hello Roatan!" and the crowd cheered & rags raised in the air and so the sermon began.
He appears to be as limber now as he ever was. As if a puppeteer was pulling the strings from above, his ageing hips would gyrate and swing from side to side with deep purposeful thrusts. Sometimes he would balance precariously on toes in an almost crouching tiger position while winding his hips in circular motions, and one would think he was a half century younger. The man has aged exceptionally well from all angles. He starts to sing one of my favorites: "the orange, the cherry & the plum plum plum, the orange, the cherry and the plum, plum, plum" and I shove my hips to the front; to the right; to the back and three times in the front again when he says "plum, plum,plum".
G-Rod and I got to the festival way too early which proved to be a blessing. It started at noon and we got there about 2:00 that afternoon. The blazing sun had even the friendly iguanas taking cover in nearby rocks. T-Bone the cutest little party dog ever, always up for a good time and willing to go anywhere, was suffering from the heat, and we were thinking of heading back out and coming back later.
There was hardly anyone there & we finally decided to go and check out the grounds anyway. As soon as we started heading over the concrete bridge leading from the parking lot to the island, I spotted Lord Laro, the Lord himself~and he was heading straight towards me with his guitar strapped to his back!
He was just ending a tune up session getting ready for his concert that night. Oh what sheer dumb luck! G-Rod says we always seem to "stumble into it with effortless energy".
G-Rod really wanted to see Lord Laro. We've been talking about him for the past year. I told him once that my sister's ex-husband who had communication shortcomings would express his feelings to her through putting on a particular song on the stereo .
Around the time of the break-up, he would play Lord Laro's song: "Oh my comanding wife, you want to control my life, you want to destroy my life" and G-Rod just thought this was the funniest joke.
G-Rod always like to give me hell, for the sport of it and so in the past year whenever someone had said to him that we look happy as a couple he would say, "yeah we even have our own song" and sing that song. It was a private joke between us but people always felt like I was being abused verbally.
After last night's concert, the Lord has a new convert. G-Rod has been singing a new song "a lovers license is just like a drivers license, you get a learners permit and practice the things they teach"..........sing, sing, sing.......he doesn't remember all the words exactly but he remembers the part that says "when you driving down the road and you get to the hole, a hope you don't get a flat" and all he wants to do is practice, practice.
Imagine G-Rod and my excitement when we got the opportunity to chat a little with the Lord.
After we walk away, "Oondoora" says G-Rod. Thats how he hears the Honduran pronounce their country's name lately as they are yelling for their team in the Gold Cup going on right now. He has practiced this pronunciation with the h & s at the beginning and end silent ever since. "Oondoora, I just met Lord Laro in Oondoora!"
G-Rod thankfully had sprung into action with the camera like a top paparazzi , one would think Paris Hilton had just met up with the Lord.
Me: "Mr. Lord Laro (Mr.?..Mr.?? is that o.k. to say before Lord? I was really nervous) I am a huge fan and I've seen you before mainly in Belize".
Lord Laro: (Hi pitch, big smile) "BAAAAYYLEEZE! Man, I just love Baaaayyleeze!"
Me: I can't wait to see your concert tonight?
Lord Laro: Man, I hope you have a really good time.
Me: Can you play "Commanding wife for my boyfriend here"
Lord Laro: (looking now perplexed I start to worry if he ever sang this song at all)
"A so sorry man, a don't have it on the line-up".
Me: Don't worry, I'll get him the C.D., its his favorite song of yours.
Can I take a picture with you?"
Lord Laro: "Of course man!" (as he puts his arm around me and gives the biggest smile I have ever seen)
Me: "thank you so much, I wont miss the concert tonight for anything!"
LORD LARO as usual did not disappoint!
To a packed crowded gathered under the stars in front of a huge open air stage at the private island of Coral Caye the man "bring down the house again". Throughout the night he kept giving shouts "whe my people from Baaayyyleeeze?" to which I seem to be the only one responding with gut wrenching screams you would think I had all of Belize City there. I couldn't contain my excitement and jumped up and down as if someone has slipped a trampoline underneath my now sore ankles as long as the concert lasted. I would hear again and again " whe my people from Baayyleeze!" and I started to wonder if he forgot for a while that he was in Honduras. I like to think he was trying to communicate with me. But for sure the Belizeans know how to jam to this music much better than the Hondurans and I think he missed that kind of crowd.
At the end of the night when the people yelled for "MORE, MORE" he came back and played a song I had somehow forgotten "Tell Guatemala leave Baayyyleeze alone...tell Guatemala leave Baayyleeeze alone..." and he finished of with "The Foreign Press".
An incredible entertainer who has been a star from before I was born has not lost an ounce of his charisma on or off stage. His story telling through song keeps the audience mesmerized. The melodic sounds of his music keep our hips moving and he sucked us all in from start to finish. Wow! what a night. I would see him again and again and again! Live long, live strong Lord Laro. Jah Bless!
Lord Laro, King of the Soca and Calypso music, musical legend of the Caribbean was the feature act at the Shrimp Festival last night here in Roatan. Although I have seen him perform in Belize several times and Miami at least once, there was no way I was going to miss his concert here. I am one of his biggest fans.
His concert was worth waiting for. He rocked the crowd in true Laro fashion. He came on stage around 11:30 after various bands the last a Country & Western band hailing all the way from Tennessee.
I had never heard of them but the one which the Hondurans obviously adored. My friend from Palmetto told me this country band sings the number one country song in Honduras. The name of this artist or the song is no longer a memory of mine (although she told me repeatedly) since my whole excitement & purpose there was to see the Lord.
But for those of you who are not in the know, country & western is alive and popular in Central America and the sound emanating from countless little barrio bars is not uncommon.
With my heart beating faster than if I had just run a 25 mile marathon, the Lord appeared in a vision of white head-to-toe "Hello Roatan!" and the crowd cheered & rags raised in the air and so the sermon began.
He appears to be as limber now as he ever was. As if a puppeteer was pulling the strings from above, his ageing hips would gyrate and swing from side to side with deep purposeful thrusts. Sometimes he would balance precariously on toes in an almost crouching tiger position while winding his hips in circular motions, and one would think he was a half century younger. The man has aged exceptionally well from all angles. He starts to sing one of my favorites: "the orange, the cherry & the plum plum plum, the orange, the cherry and the plum, plum, plum" and I shove my hips to the front; to the right; to the back and three times in the front again when he says "plum, plum,plum".
G-Rod and I got to the festival way too early which proved to be a blessing. It started at noon and we got there about 2:00 that afternoon. The blazing sun had even the friendly iguanas taking cover in nearby rocks. T-Bone the cutest little party dog ever, always up for a good time and willing to go anywhere, was suffering from the heat, and we were thinking of heading back out and coming back later.
There was hardly anyone there & we finally decided to go and check out the grounds anyway. As soon as we started heading over the concrete bridge leading from the parking lot to the island, I spotted Lord Laro, the Lord himself~and he was heading straight towards me with his guitar strapped to his back!
He was just ending a tune up session getting ready for his concert that night. Oh what sheer dumb luck! G-Rod says we always seem to "stumble into it with effortless energy".
G-Rod really wanted to see Lord Laro. We've been talking about him for the past year. I told him once that my sister's ex-husband who had communication shortcomings would express his feelings to her through putting on a particular song on the stereo .
Around the time of the break-up, he would play Lord Laro's song: "Oh my comanding wife, you want to control my life, you want to destroy my life" and G-Rod just thought this was the funniest joke.
G-Rod always like to give me hell, for the sport of it and so in the past year whenever someone had said to him that we look happy as a couple he would say, "yeah we even have our own song" and sing that song. It was a private joke between us but people always felt like I was being abused verbally.
After last night's concert, the Lord has a new convert. G-Rod has been singing a new song "a lovers license is just like a drivers license, you get a learners permit and practice the things they teach"..........sing, sing, sing.......he doesn't remember all the words exactly but he remembers the part that says "when you driving down the road and you get to the hole, a hope you don't get a flat" and all he wants to do is practice, practice.
Imagine G-Rod and my excitement when we got the opportunity to chat a little with the Lord.
After we walk away, "Oondoora" says G-Rod. Thats how he hears the Honduran pronounce their country's name lately as they are yelling for their team in the Gold Cup going on right now. He has practiced this pronunciation with the h & s at the beginning and end silent ever since. "Oondoora, I just met Lord Laro in Oondoora!"
G-Rod thankfully had sprung into action with the camera like a top paparazzi , one would think Paris Hilton had just met up with the Lord.
Me: "Mr. Lord Laro (Mr.?..Mr.?? is that o.k. to say before Lord? I was really nervous) I am a huge fan and I've seen you before mainly in Belize".
Lord Laro: (Hi pitch, big smile) "BAAAAYYLEEZE! Man, I just love Baaaayyleeze!"
Me: I can't wait to see your concert tonight?
Lord Laro: Man, I hope you have a really good time.
Me: Can you play "Commanding wife for my boyfriend here"
Lord Laro: (looking now perplexed I start to worry if he ever sang this song at all)
"A so sorry man, a don't have it on the line-up".
Me: Don't worry, I'll get him the C.D., its his favorite song of yours.
Can I take a picture with you?"
Lord Laro: "Of course man!" (as he puts his arm around me and gives the biggest smile I have ever seen)
Me: "thank you so much, I wont miss the concert tonight for anything!"
LORD LARO as usual did not disappoint!
To a packed crowded gathered under the stars in front of a huge open air stage at the private island of Coral Caye the man "bring down the house again". Throughout the night he kept giving shouts "whe my people from Baaayyyleeeze?" to which I seem to be the only one responding with gut wrenching screams you would think I had all of Belize City there. I couldn't contain my excitement and jumped up and down as if someone has slipped a trampoline underneath my now sore ankles as long as the concert lasted. I would hear again and again " whe my people from Baayyleeze!" and I started to wonder if he forgot for a while that he was in Honduras. I like to think he was trying to communicate with me. But for sure the Belizeans know how to jam to this music much better than the Hondurans and I think he missed that kind of crowd.
At the end of the night when the people yelled for "MORE, MORE" he came back and played a song I had somehow forgotten "Tell Guatemala leave Baayyyleeze alone...tell Guatemala leave Baayyleeeze alone..." and he finished of with "The Foreign Press".
An incredible entertainer who has been a star from before I was born has not lost an ounce of his charisma on or off stage. His story telling through song keeps the audience mesmerized. The melodic sounds of his music keep our hips moving and he sucked us all in from start to finish. Wow! what a night. I would see him again and again and again! Live long, live strong Lord Laro. Jah Bless!
Comments
I am delighted your philosophy about the life and the way you think about many aspects thru your paragraphs, God keeps on illuminating your mind and heart, and reminding you still that the beginning of the life keeps on being simple in any strata socially.
Thank you for your inputs about life.
Frank.
My email: Frankandradehn@yahoo.com
And on the night of the exam
You arm and arm with your woman
And if she tell you 'honey you great'
You get de marriage certificate.
Had this song on a cassette (yes) that I lost 20 yrs ago....