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Posted By: Mike and Daphne Ryan Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/09/01 06:33 PM
Daphne and I are building on AC right now and will be spending some real time there in a couple of years. We're amatuer musicians and wonder if there is any muic scene there. We've seen a few people playing at some of the resorts.

We play trad Irish, English, Scottish, some bluegrass, and folk. Daphne plays fiddle and mandolin. I back her up on guitar and banjo, play some mandolin and am learning some fiddle. I play baroque flute when I get the chance.

We'd be interested in people playing any of that, or some simple chamber music.

Anything like that happen on AC?

P.S. We also play the Asian game of Go. We're in the 1-3 kyu range, depending on the day and number of beers or glasses of wine.
Posted By: rickcheri Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/13/01 08:16 AM
Where are you all building, we should start ours this year, we go down on the 30th to finalize everything.. We are in Tres Cocos area.. and yes all music is welcome and will be fun to hear your kind of music. Rick
Posted By: M-A Gaffney Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/13/01 09:22 PM
Welcome to Belize! While your music is quite specialized, you MAY find some interest in San Pedro. That is where most tourists hang out. Traditional Belizean music runs in the reggae, soca, and merengue vein (Caribbean style). The local music is PUNTA. You will find this a REAL learning experience ... If you are interested finding out more, pick up a Punta Rebels CD off Amazon.com. Most Caribbean artists are popular in Belize; Byron Lee (soca), all things Bob Marley, most of the new reggae guys. We caught Santino's Messingers in Miami last week for Carnival. It was like being home again. They are a local band. As are Andy Palacio, Titiman Flores, Mohobub, Griga Boyz. There's a bunch of stuff happening.
Posted By: Mike and Daphne Ryan Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/15/01 09:56 PM
rickcheri - thanks for an answer. Hell, we'll play anything. I did a lot of folk in the old days, and I've been writing songs lately. Six in the last five months. It's always great to learn new stuff. I took up the fiddle a few years ago (at 60), and Daph is learning guitar. Unusual move for a fiddle player.

We're bulding in the El Pescador Villas, just south of El Pescador Lodge, just north of the cut. Ours is "villa" #2 (It's just a house, for God's sake.) We couldn't aford the ones in front. Probably can't afford this one either, but we're doing it anyway.

When we've finished earning the money for this we're going to retire. (Again. Third time a charm, let's hope.) We'll move back on board our sailboat, Here There Be Dragons. It needs about a year's worth of work to make it ready for the oceans. Then we can sail to AC and live ashore, say from Jan or Feb through April. Otherwise, we'll circulate the Atlantic -- May in Bermuda, June & early July in the NE US, across to the Azores for August (maybe Portugal, Ireland, etc.), October down to Madeira, Canaries, or Cape Verde Isle, December head across to the Caribbean and fetch up behind the reef at AC to do it all again. If we live long enough that we can't do the transatlantic stuff, we can just settle in at AC, play music, play go games, write our stuff, do some mathematics, stare into one another's eyes, that sort of thing.

I'll get the CD.
Posted By: Mike and Daphne Ryan Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/15/01 10:08 PM
Hi M-A Gaffney --

Thanks for the info on the music. My reply to rickcheri was supposed to include you. Just didn't get your name on it. Daphne's family comes from the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana), so we've heard a good bit of that music. A lot at our wedding. Might as well learn to play it. It's just that when we started playing together with some friends a few years ago, we were working from the Fiddler's Fakebook. A lot of our friends up here in New York - Boston are into the Irish, oldtime, bluegrass scene. But we'll play anything we can. One of the songs I just wrote is in the "country" idiom. I've only written one trad style fiddle tune.

Look forward to some real time on the Caye. We'll be down Jan 19 to set up our house for use.

Thanks again.

M.
Posted By: KC Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/16/01 04:21 AM
Mike and Daphne,
We have something in common... our houses. Same builder, same design. You have El Pescador #2, and we have Los Encantos #2! Hope to meet you some day! Keep in touch here on the BB so we know when you'll be showin' up on AC!

kathy
Posted By: Scott+Linda Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/16/01 10:48 AM
Hi Mike and Daphne
We're Scottish and are starting to build down south next year so very pleased to hear that we'll be able to enjoy some music of the homeland.
Unfortunately we will just miss your visit as we are over between Dec 18 and Jan 7 but hopefully we'll catch up with you sometime. I used to do a bit of folk/blues singing many 'hippie' years ago so maybe I'll dust off the vocal chords and join you!
Posted By: Mike and Daphne Ryan Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/16/01 01:07 PM
Hi Kathy --

You bought the villa that we first saw! We were negotiating how to finance it, and they didn't like our plan. We worked something else out for the El Pescador villa. You've got a very nice place. Very peaceful up there. We have a lot of picures of it. Look forward to meeting you. We will be bringing our music friends down when we can spend more than a couple of weeks vacation on AC. That should be two years from now, God willing. Thanks for the reply.

Daphne and Mike
Posted By: Mike and Daphne Ryan Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/16/01 01:16 PM
Hi Scott and Linda --

We'll dust off "Scotland the Brave" and some Strathspeys. Our friend Barbara Calhoun (who got us all playing together a few years ago - as "Whiskey Before Breakfast") will certainly come down. She has a long history of performance at sessions up in NY. We started getting together on the rule that we all had to play an instrument that was new to us. Daphne did mandolin then, though now she is back to the fiddle, Barbara, a guitarist, took up mandolin, I took up banjo and baroque flute, another friend, whose joined us recently, took up the concertina. Now, of course we just switch around instruments to whatever suits us for the tune. We do a lot of folk together as well. We look forward to another voice.

I think I'll write a "Belize Blues", a complaint about how hard it is to sing the blues in such a gorgeous place.

See you when we're all there together.

Daph & Mike
Posted By: tincup Re: Music on Ambergris Caye - 10/23/01 03:06 PM
Hi Mike and Daphne. We will be close neighbors soon. Husband Jamie and I will be going down in November to start the construction process. Our lot is north of White Sands and south of El Pescador. You can email me at [email protected]
Tanya Graf
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