What do professional
Nashville songwriters, The Barefoot Man, and Rake & Scrape all have in
common? They can be seen and heard right
here in our little piece of the Bahamas.
Everyone will likely understand songwriters form Nashville and could
imagine that The Barefoot Man is an entertainer and you would be correct. But what is Rake & Scrape you ask?
In an
earlier blog post we talked about the Combustion Music Songwriter’s festival
held in Hope Town. Well, we had another
one too! In February, Nashville
heavyweight Patrick Davis brought a few of his friends for a similar festival
in and around Hope Town with some of the venues being different from the group
in December. The performances were
spread over several days and the performers are songwriters who are responsible
for many major hits recorded by big name stars.
They performed in ‘the round’ where one performer would tell a little
story about themselves or how the song was created and then sing the song and
accompany themselves on guitar. There
would often be a little banter among themselves and the other performers might
strum a little background rhythm. Then,
the spotlight would move on to the next in line and would continue that way. We were able to take in 5 of the 7
performances, sometimes commuting by dinghy to the venue. Very fun!
The Barefoot
Man is a Caribbean music icon sometimes compared to Jimmy Buffett only
different. He performs such classic hits
as “She Loves my Deck”, “Dirty Belly Button”, “Fake Boobies”, etc. etc. You get the picture. The swimsuit clad crowd goes wild, dancing
while singing all the lyrics. The
concert is held on Friday afternoon and then again on Saturday night at Nippers
beach bar on Guana Cay. It is quite a
spectacle.
Now for Rake
& Scrape. This is a classic Bahamian
music style performed on a standard handsaw using a screwdriver to rake and
scrape across the teeth of the saw. It
sounds quite boring but in the hands of an experienced player like Abaco
favorite Brown Tip, the sound is quite complicated. Holding the saw handle just under the arm pit
and flexing the blade while rasping and banging with the screwdriver, add a
little background from an electronic drum track, perhaps a limbo pole, and you
have a party!
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| Songwriters opening night at Sea Spray Resort |
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| Songwriters at Hope Town Inn & Marina |
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| At 'The Edge' |
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| Very fun night at Firefly |
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| Patrick Davis (red shirt) at Abaco Inn |
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Crowd going wild to
Barefoot Man |
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| Barefoot Man at Nippers |
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| Rake & Scrape |
