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Saturday, May 3, 2025

Scrunter eyes Chutney Monarch

by

20121011

When it comes to parang so­ca in Trinidad and To­ba­go, for most, one name comes to mind, Scrunter. Born Ir­win Reyes John­son, Scrunter has made his mu­si­cal mark ex­treme­ly vis­i­ble on the parang so­ca cir­cuit for years. He is in high de­mand dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son and has to be booked sev­er­al weeks in ad­vance.

A self-con­fessed "coun­try boy," Scrunter is one of ca­lyp­so's most unique com­posers/ artistes in that, be­fore tak­ing on the parang so­ca genre, he was a bona fide ca­lyp­so tra­di­tion­al­ist, his tal­ents honed by late Grand­mas­ter Lord Kitch­en­er.

In the 1982 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nal he up­set the odds by win­ning the cov­et­ed crown and ti­tle over vet­er­ans like Mighty Duke, Chalk­dust, To­ba­go Cru­soe and Black Stal­in, singing The Will and Lick-e-Ting. On stage that Di­manche Gras night, at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain, with the packed venue wild­ly ap­plaud­ing every verse Srunter sang, Kitch­en­er him­self made a cameo ap­pear­ance, pass­ing on "the will" to Scrunter, the clinch­er of the per­for­mance. Among Scrunter's much-loved ca­lyp­so hits are Woman on the Bass, Take the Num­ber, Cra­paud Rev­o­lu­tion, Sing in She Par­ty, Oil in de Coil, Ju­dith, Suck Mih Soucouyant and Breast Fed.

Af­ter some un­pleas­ant ex­pe­ri­ences with record pro­duc­ers, tent man­agers, ra­dio sta­tions and oth­ers in the mu­sic in­dus­try, Scrunter de­cid­ed to give ca­lyp­so a rest and, in 1988, pro­duced his first parang so­ca song-Piece ah Pork-which, not sur­pris­ing­ly, was an in­stant hit. This new ca­lyp­so hy­brid was still in its in­fan­cy, ruled then by Crazy.

How­ev­er, Scrunter quick­ly fol­lowed his de­but hit with oth­er hits like Ani­ta, Home­made Wine, Trib­ute to Daisy, Ah Drink­ing Any­thing, Back­yard Jam, Co­cotte and Ma Jef­fery Oye. He was al­so crowned the Parang So­ca Monarch of 1994 and '95, and opened his unique show­place-De For­est-in rus­tic Ve­ga de Oropouche.

Still to re­alise his dream of many years, to do a Latin or parang so­ca record­ing with Joey Lewis, Scrunter is about to achieve an­oth­er dream, record­ing a chut­ney so­ca song.

The ca­lyp­so icon jok­ing­ly said: "I want to show Rik­ki Jai and oth­ers what re­al chut­ney so­ca mu­sic is all about. As a mat­ter of fact, I would be en­ter­ing the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion next year."

This week­end Scrunter will re­lease his first chut­ney so­ca song en­ti­tled Bashan­ti. This is one of a few songs he is due to re­lease for the Christ­mas sea­son. Bashan­ti is ac­tu­al­ly one of his chut­ney so­ca songs which he de­cid­ed to re­lease be­fore any new parang so­ca songs.

On De­cem­ber 22, Scrunter will hold his an­nu­al Pork Dance at De For­est, es­tab­lished since 1988, and a must for all lovers of a good parang fete na­tion­wide.

One of the ex­cit­ing high­lights of this fete was the re­lease of a greased pig mid­way in the par­ty. The pa­tron who caught it took the an­i­mal home. This tra­di­tion has now ceased and the live pig is in­stead giv­en as a door prize.

The pork dance is a de­light to all who at­tend as its menu an­nu­al­ly in­cludes a wide va­ri­ety of wild meat, in­clu­sive of lappe, igua­na, mon­key, wild hog, deer, man­i­cou and moun­tain chick­en.


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