Spent a lot of time the first week and a half, ocean gazing. Now I am getting down to the last week, and feel I must get busy. One of my plans is to cover Lobsterfest, do some interviews and get some reggae/Caribbean music for my radio show.  Have made contact with 3 bands.
One of the bands, Paranda Ambassadors, the manager/lead musician, Silas Sabal has a recording studio. He  invited me over to record some music of his band. It is located in a neighboring village, Seine Bight. I  went there at the arranged time. Unfortunately, the band was in another town.
We spent the time touring his studio, discussing his style of music, and his background as a musician.
His band consists of 4 musicians. Silas plays guitar, keyboard and does vocals.  Emilo Thomas, known as Leo, plays guitar.  Anthony and Robert Marin plays drums. Drums are not the usual drum kit we are all familiar with. The drums are hand played,  sounds a bit African style.
The style of music they play is Punta Rock, a very fast “bootie shaking” type with very fast drums. The main music they play is Paranda, a Garifuna reggae.
The history of the Garifuna is  when slavery was ended by the English in 1775, a group from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent,   migrated to Belize. Now called Garifuna people. They are almost the indigenous people.  Now many regional changes have been made to the music.
Silas is a songwriter. He won the 2010 first place in the Patriotic song contest.
Silas found music  at the age of 9. He heard a lady play piano. It was the beginning of his enchantment with music, and his career pursuit.  He took piano lessons but the teacher was mean (my own similar experience). He stopped the lessons and taught himself the piano, guitar and how to sing.
His lifelong passion was cemented, when once in school, the teacher asked if anyone could play piano? He raised is hand, went to the piano, and played  the one chord he knew, all through the national anthem.  The kids applauded and a musician was born.
On the night of Lobsterfest, I am supposed to record him. When I arrived, he handed me a CD, said they all stayed up late the night before, and recorded it for me and the listeners at KSYM radio.
for more information, see Silas Sabal or Sabal Studio Productions on Facebook.