"Time to love up we ting," says Shadow. Shadow (Winston Bailey) has come out batting for calypso.Seeing the crisis calypso is in, as it is being overwhelmed by soca, Shadow wants to see more concentration on calypso.With a career that spans 40 years, Shadow who's getting better with age, is enjoying performances. He appears nightly at the Kaiso House situated at the big top at the entrance to the Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.
Fresh from a smashing performance recently at the National Museum in Port-of-Spain, Shadow is ready to take on all challenges with Scanty Love and Land of Calypso, two songs he hopes will take him to the National Calypso Monarch final for 2011.When asked about his return to competition, all Shadow will offer is: "I will sign the form."A man of few words, Shadow has stayed away from the tent scene, "because I need a rest."
Now he's back, Shadow has put all disappointment behind him as he forges ahead.Fans say he was given a raw deal with Poverty Is Hell (1992), and in 2009, when the enigmatic and charismatic singer was placed as a "second reserve." It caused an uproar, Shadow lashed the "soca controllers" who, he says, "are still making and breaking stars."In land of Calypso, he unleashes a few calpets on deejays.
Deejay why yuh doing,
Deejay who yuh fooling,
Ah see yuh Carnival Day,
Jumping like yuh crazy,
But when Carnival Done,
Ah don't know where yuh
head gone,
Gone back on the radio,
You forget calypso,
Soca singers, pan composers and calypsonians have been complaining about a lack of airplay. Shadow stressed that is time "we love-up 'we ting' and not 'foreign'."Scanty Love and Land of Calypso were co-produced by Shadow and his son Sharlan Bailey. -Mr Muzik