The Real Thing Steel Band- The Clayhouse Inn Presents

DSCN4460This was $3.00 and is probably one of the most blatant marketing attempts since the movie Mac and Me.  For those to young to remember the real thing or Mac and Me, Google them.map

This is the first album by the Real Thing Steel Band. Obviously by looking at title and cover, they are sponsored by the Coca Cola bottler in Bermuda.  The first and last song are the Coca Cola theme.  The Clayhouse Inn, on the other hand, was a popular hotel and music club on the North Shore in the 70’s in Bermuda.  Sister Sledge, the Supremes. and Gladys Knight all played there.  It was not uncommon in the Caribbean islands for hotels to put together and sell records of local musicians to tourists.  The hotel weaned in popularity at the turn of the century and then caught fire sometime thereafter.  The last I could tell, they were trying to turn it into a residential development, though I am not sure if they were successful or not.  Below is a link to a nice little video showing the ruins after the fire.84450

Link to video of the Clayhouse Inn

The Real Thing Band, formed in 1970 and directed by Willard Paul with Captain Edgar Andrews on Double Tenor, are pretty good.  As far as steel drum albums go, this is the best sound quality I have heard.  It is really amazing the complete symphonic sound they are able to achieve on these basic instruments with little idea of music theory and as the back cover puts it, “a vague idea of reading music”.  This means that the majority of these musicians play by memory.  The song selection is okay.  This album includes “Somewhere My Love” from Dr Zhavago.  For those keeping score at home, this is the fourth album this month to feature this song.DSCN4461

As a sample, I went with “Siboney”.  The leader on the record says it is South American, but in reality, it is Cuban , written by Ernesto Lecuona while away his home in Siboney, Cuba.  It is about homesickness.steel-drums

This is perhaps the best steel drum album I own, sound quality wise.  Satisfactory indeed.

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