When Cruz Bay Post Office clerk Chester Brady cuts loose and "goes postal," things may get a little crazy, but nobody gets hurt and everyone has fun.
Brady, also known as calypsonian the Mighty Groover, has just released a new CD titled "Mighty Groover, The Return." His calypso fans know him from his stage drag with a wig, balloon-stuffed blouse, bustle skirt and ukulele. That's just one of the goofy get-ups he has been known to don to perform "Crazy Sharon," one of the cuts in this lively musical collection.
Brady takes his listeners on a three-island musical tour with the help of some of the Virgin Islands' greatest native talent: St. John pannist extraordinare Carl Freeman; Ira "Dr. Sax" Meyers of Milo's Kings and sometimes Seabreeze Band on St. Thomas; and Eldreth "Edgie" Christian from St. Croix's Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights.
Each artist takes his turn showing off his instrumental gifts. Meyers wails a saxaphone version of "Crazy Sharon" that can rouse even the sleepiest hips. Christian's lightning fingers bring the heart of the Virgin Islands scratch band to life in "The Banjo Man." Freeman provides the sparkle for "Masters of Pan."
All of the songs were written by Groover, who also served as executive producer.
In a time when calypsonians rely heavily on slick presentations, biting commentary and risqué double entendre, Groover keeps things light and lyrical, blending quelbe and folkways spiced with plenty of humor.
At this year's St. John Festival calypso show in the Winston Wells Ball Park, he stopped the band in the introduction of "Crazy Sharon" and excused himself to the audience as he kicked off his pumps because they hurt his feet. On the night he played an intermission act for Cool Sessions Brass in the festival village, he showed up in wig and bustle with his ukelele to form a one man-tramp up to the stage. He also appeared as the only single entry in the festival parade, wearing a frayed straw hat on his head and a bedpan at his waist as he strummed a gigantic cardboard guitar and chipped down the street in an entry called "What a Tray-Lay-Lay."
You may not see Brady at a calypso monarch competition, but you will find him at a University of the Virgin Islands folkways festival. Out of respect for Caribbean cultural music, he calls his six-song selection a "combination crossover of calypso and cultural flavor and rhythms."
The Mighty Groover has dedicated this latest release to the late Trinidadian calypso legend Aldwyn Roberts, "Lord Kitchener," and James "Jah Banks" George. Brady pays tribute on the album to the two as "true calypsonians in their own right."
