The Rounds: Bring your Mas and come! Vincy Mas 2K8 is officially on!

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I'm Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay's Rounds. I'm finding new respect for the month of May! How can you not love a month that's going to be jam packed with amazing fetes, band launches, and carnival kick-offs? How can you not love a month that has all those things packed into one day?!

Saturday, May 3, marked the birthday of former Xtatik percussionist and vocalist Farmer Nappy. He's busy working on new releases for Barbados' Crop Over Festival.

Last night also marked the first ever Toronto edition of Shal Marshall's signature fete…Gyal Farm…and the girls came out in country and western costume, Daisy Dukes and all. Everybody knows where the ladies go, the gents will follow. So Callaloo mas camp can look forward to several masculine masqueraders in their hot new Gyal Farm section for Caribana 2K8. The section will be headed by Kerwin Du Bois and Shal Marshall, and was designed by Marlon Singh. It features peachy beads and feathers for the girls and straw hats in a matching motif for the boys.

Batabano Carnival wrapped up yesterday in Grand Caymen. Dexter Seusahai from Toronto's Tribal Knights Mas Band made the annual trip to see his beautiful designs hit the road with Swanky International. He'll be back in Toronto soon to launch his presentation of Deep Rising at Soca or Die. The Saturday night portion of the first-ever two-day long fete will feature performances by Destra and Atlantik, Tizzy, Maximus Dan and Kerwin Du Bois.

Yesterday was also the official launch of Vincy Mas. This year's theme is "Bring Yuh MAS And Come!" and all of Kingstown took it to heart. The crowd spilled out of the Chamber of Commerce Car Park for 6 hours as they were treated to all the elements of carnival; pan, calypso, mas and soca. Zoelah reigned supreme at the best new song competition for the second year in a row. She beat out Danielle Veira with her uptempo double entendre, Zoom In. Kevin Lyttle made a brief appearance to premiere his new ragga track "Come See Me" featuring Lexxus. Later, Shaunelle McKenzie brought the house down with her performance of Don't Let Go, a smooth one produced by Mark Cyrus and written by Luta. Dr. Jay gave it a spin last week. The night closed out with performances by Luta, Jalena, Tabia and Fireman Hooper, all backed by the Akcess Band. Don't you just love May?

I'm Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay's Rounds. Please leave your comments at the Nurse Karen Etc blog at triple W dot mustardseeds dot net. Now back to de docta!