The Rounds: Shurwayne Winchester and Y.O.U celebrated 1 year, etc!

Originally aired on Flow 93.5 FM in Toronto "Soca Therapy"

In this edition:

- Shurwayne and Y.O.U. celebrate one year (Trinidad and Tobago)
- SVG goverment promises money to artists (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
- Problem Child's Mad House Tour Reality Show (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
- December carnivals: St. Kitts, St. Croix, Montserrat
- Soca or Die (Canada)
- This week's soca birthdays: B.V.I, St. Kitts and Nevis

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Last Tuesday, Shurwayne Winchester and YOU celebrated their 1st anniversary together as a band. The event took place at Woodford Cafe in Trinidad, the same place they held their very first performance just one year before. Since then, they have the have grown as a cohesive unit, opened their own band room, produced the ABX Riddim for Carnival 2k10, and recorded 18 of their own songs. Shurwayne announced that Y.O.U. would be releasing a new album on the 1st of December.
The very same date marked the 30th anniversary of independence for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There’s all kinds of reasons why something like that is important news for the rounds, but allow me to give you one more. To mark the occasion, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced the government’s plans for an economic stimulus package that includes 1 million dollars in grant money to be doled out to its cultural entrepreneurs. It plain English, the soca artists are getting cheques in the mail just for being creative. Boyyyy, nothing says happy Indy like free money.

Speaking of SVG, I’m not sure how many of you knew that St. Vincent’s Roadmarch king, Problem Child has his very own reality show. It’s called the Madhouse Tour and it launched on St. Vincent’s K45, Iktv channel in the fall. I never mentioned it to you before, because there were no videos online. Well now there are. If you surf over to youtube, You can see funny clips of the artist’s adventures all over the place, including....TORONTO.
We all know that Trinidad Carnival is coming in February. But there are actually several other Carnivals before then. In December three other Caribbean Islands will heat up with the sounds of soca, and theatre of mas; St. Kitts, St. Croix (USVI), and Montserrat. The 2009 Montserrat Festival calendar was just released this past week, with a packed agenda of activities from December 4th through January 1st.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today is only November 1st. So, happy birthday goes out to soca artist, Lincoln Ward in the British Virgin Island. Then on Saturday, the Parade of Scorpio b-days continues. That night will be the 1st ever Soca or Die Surprise Birthday party for Dr. Jay and friends. Hope you got your tickets! But it’s also the birthday of Juliette Mills from St. Kitts, Tabia from St. Vincent, and Scarface from Trinidad. Don’t look surprised, we already told you November is the month of the Soca Baby!

Before I go...good news. Knycky Cordner performed again with her band Ventures for the 1st time since her hip surgery earlier this year. Happy to see the girl back in action!
I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. To get the news first, be sure to visit nurse dash Karen dot com or follow me, nursekaren on Twitter. Now back to de Docta!