The Rounds: Brother B injured in car crash

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I'm Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay's Rounds. Hard to believe it is September. The whirl wind of Caribbean summer carnivals has ended, and the big street parties in the diaspora will wrap up soon. Last weekend the action was in New York City, for the annual West Indian Day Parade. Almost all your favourite soca personalities were on hand to dazzle their American fans.

Faye-Ann and Bunji preparing to go on stage at Battle of the Bands, NY

One noticeably absent performer, however, was St. Lucia's reigning soca monarch, Ricky T. He stayed home with his family to usher in the birth of his first child.

Another soca ambassador who was absent from the Brooklyn action on Monday was Mr. Kevin Lyttle. Many of you have been asking what became of that much talked about 2^nd commercial album that has been brewing for years. The album is called FYAH, and it was finally released last week in Japan. Over the weekend, Kevin was in Asia promoting the 18 track CD that features collaborations with the likes of Alison Hinds, Lexxus, Skinny Fabulous and Problem Child. It was released on Universal Japan, so you can't get it on this side of the globe quite yet unless you're willing to pay for shipping from Amazon's Japanese online store.

Nurse Karen and Kevin Lyttle

Farmer Nappy shared his vocal stylings alongside the HD camp last Thursday at SOB's, and Saturday at ACNY at the Cipriani in Manhattan. Then it was back to the Caribbean to shoot the music video for Belly Dancer. The song was originally released for Barbados Crop Over, but will be re-released for the Trinidad market along with the video by early November. Nappy's also getting his hands dirty with something called the United Soca Movement. You heard it here first, more details soon.

Farmer Nappy and Nurse Karen

Last but not least, I'd like to send out warm wishes to Grenadian soca singer Brother B. He was injured in a serious car accident last weekend. You may know him from songs like "Pork" from last year, or Grenada's most requested song of 2008, "Little Wine" The 24-year-old artiste damaged his waist and fractured his arm, but is reported to be recovering speedily.

I'm Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay's Rounds. If you'd like to check out some of the New York Labour Day action for yourself, be sure to suss out pics, videos and journals online at the Nurse Karen Etc blog at triple w dot mustardseeds dot net. And you enjoy having the latest in soca news on the go, download Dr. Jay's Rounds at Soca Therapy dot com. Now back to de Docta!