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Sunnie Dae

Linstead Market, Dandy Shandy & Other Jamaican Folk songs
2012 celebrating 50 years of Independence

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Caribbean Folk and blues singer Sunnie Dae has compiled a dynamic collection of Jamaican folk songs whose origins date back to the late 19th century and early 20th century to celebrate 50 years of Jamaican independence. Sunnie has worked with other Artists such as Benjamin Zephaniah, Courtney Pine and The Happy End Big Band.
Contemporary Jamaican band The Jolly Boys have paved the way for a revival for Mento, which is Jamaica’s folk music. On the album, Sunnie is joined by Frederick Turuka in the rhythm section on Caixa who leads the Bateria group for the London School of Samba and Sian McDonald on Repinique. The horn section is Louise Elliott on Tenor Saxophone & Flute with Colin Graham on Trumpet & Flugel horn. The gentle man of sixty five years young, Walton McLaren provides the rich gravelly tones to Peel Head John Crow & Unity.
In Sunnie’s own words;
"On the face of it the songs are simple, however when you break down the songs you realise there are deeper stories of intriguing moral tales, with links to our past we mustn't forget. All Folk songs contain the wisdom and messages from the ancestors and that is for everybody; it is for posterity."

Here are three of the songs featured on the CD

Me Donkey waan wata/Hold ‘im Joe
The opening song on the album is described in the Jamaican Song & Story book by Walter Jekyll & Alice Werner (published 1904 The Folk-Lore Society) as a work song. The fragment coming from this period is at the final verse at the end of the song. The bridges and preceding verses are a composite from other versions with the 2nd verse written by Sunnie Dae. A much loved call and response song, typical of the genre.

Linstead Market
Louise Bennett called this song a ‘Dinky’. Meaning a sad song played in a merry mood. One of the better known Jamaican folk songs in Europe often played in the Mento style of an upbeat calypso. A mother’s sad tale of woe, she walks a long way to market with her ackee, (probably upon her head in a basket), hoping to sell enough that she can bring food back for her children. She says, ‘Mi carry mi ackee go a Linstead Market, Not a quart me done sell...’ In this version, the mood is captured as a prayer rising dynamically with layered harmonies.

Dandy Shandy
The closing song on the CD, Sunnie came across the chorus of this strident tune noted by Olive Lewin in her book Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica, (published 1973 The General Secretariat of the Organisation of the American States). Sunnie then asked elders in the Caribbean community in London if they knew the song and was able to find one other verse, Sunnie wrote Verse 3 to extend the songs arrangement. The lyric sits on a 12/8 dance feel with an English Music Hall influence about the plight of a mother who has lost her one room in which the family live and will only be consoled with alcohol. In this case a mix called Dandy Shandy. The chorus ‘Mi lok up mi room las’ night sake a rent’ Sake means ‘because of’ so she had to hand over the keys because of no money to pay rent. However she is comforted by her daughter who buys her Dandy Shandy’s.