( L - R ) Hall and Parkes - Photos by Noel Thompson

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

The second day of the Calabash Festival went into 'Calabashment' style to rock those under the big tents by the sea in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Lloyd Parkes and We the People Band was on the stand, and Pam Hall had to give two slashes of The First Cut Is The Deepest as it hit the audience, almost as large as the full house that turned out for the preceding readings. Moonlight Lover went out to the "brothers in the house" on a night when the moon played peekaboo with the sea at the whim of the clouds.

No No, No got a 'yes, yes, yes' and the black-clad Hall 'pulled up' appropriately.

She held a long 'goodbye' at the end of Perfidia but it was not farewell. "Who remembers ska?" she asked and on Wings of a Dove it was clear that many did. She requested A Little More Oil and prayed Amen before giving a peep at This Little Light of Mine. Hall's left hand urged the band on to a faster tempo as she returned to Amen and handclaps rang out under the darkened tent in time to her voice, which was joined by many in the audience.

Then the right hand slowed the band down and Hall sang a last 'a', handing over the final 'men'.

The evening's energetic compere, Colin Channer, said the next singer was precise, cheers coming as he gave examples, and when Ken Boothe walked on in black, with silver flecks in his jacket, to take those at Jakes down Freedom Street, his nifty footwork made it no ordinary journey. "You know there was a time in Jamaica when all the singers would get together and write songs about sorrow, injustice, pain. This is one of the songs we came up with," Boothe said.

"It's all about books," he said after the song had ended with a leap. "It is good to read, don't you agree?" he asked, and there was a collective affirmative.

Legwork

Silver Words came before he went slower to ask "speak softly love", applause greeting the first line. He sang "when I fall in love" and many voices completed "it will be forever", his legwork picking up. On Artibella he turned, sang and stomped his right foot to the dancehall-style mix of the band. "Ever since this business began, we been doing it in the dancehall," he said.

First his white scarf went and then his jacket, the moisture that soaked his white shirt coming from his skin and not the light drizzle as he delivered Say You. "This is a great country," Boothe said, before singing "if your heart is clean, I know you will redeem, in the land of the black, gold and green". The Train Is Coming, The Girl I Left Behind and Puppet on a String came back to back and the audience chipped merrily away. Channer asked for a demonstration of the 'flying cymbal' before Johnnie Clarke came on and hit the rub a dub declaration I am King of the Arena.