The Smiling Sandy Bay’s Entertainment Duo

Both Walter and Dwin were born in Sandy Bay, a place where many island musicians have their roots. “My father was a music man. I watched them play and I just kept right on,” says Walter about Norman James, his saxophone-playing father. James speaks with a soft, cracked voice. Walter started playing music in his teens. He played the drums, then moved to playing the guitar and eventually lead guitar.

On 1970s Roatan there was no TV or internet, but sounds of musical instruments were all around. One of Walter’s brothers was a trumpet player, and the other played the guitar and banjo. After his brother passed away, their sons: Jimmy, Joseph and Jonny continued the family tradition on music.

As a young man, Walter ran away from the Honduran army and settled back on the island and begun performing. Saturdays were dance nights on the island back then. In the 1970s, he already played for tourists at AKR. “We had Allan Flowers; Polin Galindo wrote songs,” remembers the old times Walter.

In the 1970 and 80s, many island one-man bands or two-man groups entertained the entire Roatan population. There were many solo artists and bands playing all over the island, especially on Saturdays.

Dwin Osly Bodden was born in 1991 in what he believes is Roatan’s music center – Sandy Bay. “If you dig down deep you will find that 80% of musicians are from Sandy Bay.”

At 13-14 years of age he started at 13-14 years old with gospel music at the church of God, “My maternal grandfather, Robert Gorfry, played bass guitar,” recalls Dwin who now sings both gospel and secular music.

If you dig down deep you will find that 80% of musicians are from Sandy Bay.

The Happy Boys due have been together four years. They play at the regular tourist spots: La Placita, Sol y Mar, AKR for the tourists and charity events. Roatan music scene is heading for tourist entertainment route.

The Happy Boys also travel. They have been to Cayman Islands several times, they performed on Utila, Guanaja, and the Mosquito coast. “We play reggae, soca, country and western, Merengue, Cumbia, we are quite versatile,” says Dwin. They don’t write their own songs however. “We mostly follow music, not writing,” adds James.

Pereira Brothers Circus Sets up Tent

While Hondurans are not considered circus fanatics, Roatan is a solid stop for traveling circuses and a circus comes to the island every few years. After a long period where the island had no circuses visiting, in early March, Pereira Brothers Circus erected their blue tarp on a flat, sandy path of land just east of the Roatan airport.

The man behind the circus is Julio Pereira, the circus’s founder. Julio represents the second of three circus generations in his family. “We live for the circus, we are the circus, and we will continue to live for the Circus,” said Julio as he say beneath the shiny tarp of his performance tent.

His father, Vicente Pereira, came to North America from Chile to perform in Barnum & Bailey Circus in the U.S. He was a trapeze acrobat and a clown. Vicente also performed in Mexican and Guatemalan circuses in the 1970s and 80s.

Julio and his brother Alejandro established their own circus in 2008 under an eight meter tent. “This [tent] was a very small one,” remembers Julio. Then the brothers expanded their stage and seating for a 13 meter tent. Now Alejandro Pereira performs in Guatemala, and Julio typically performs across Honduras.

Small family circuses like this one need their performers to be jacks of all trades. “I am a welder, an electrician, a driver… I do everything because we learn everything here,” said Julio. Twelve adults are part of the Pereira Brothers Circus and perform a variety of additional jobs. They help to erect the tent, set up acts, and help with the vending. The children traveling with the circus attend local schools while the circus performs at a particular location.

Julio represents the second of three circus generations.

The circus changes its performance every 15-20 days to attract repeat spectators. “We don’t have a scheduled route, nothing analyzed. We go where they want us,” says Julio Pereira. “One to two weeks before we decide where we go. It’s all improvised.”

There are around ten circuses performing at any one time in Honduras. Most of them originated from Guatemala where circus performances are much more popular. Seventy troupes constantly travel around the country, providing entertainment and diversion to Chapinos. “It’s a different culture here [in Honduras], but if you have a good show, the people do come,” says Julio Pereira. “We are small, but we have one of the best performances in Honduras.”

Indeed the Pereira Brothers Circus has several impressive acts. The show begins with a trapeze act, then there is a mesmerizing knife throwing act, a high tight rope walking act, silks acrobatics, and a motorcycle sphere-of-death performance.

The hard work of the performance artists has been paying off. Now, the family is investing in a bigger, 15-meter tent and new transport trucks. “We need more space for trapeze artists,” says Julio. His three sons have already picked up the family tradition. Now Maycol Pereira, Yino Alejandro, and Julio Esteven Pereira entertain the crowds. “Before, I did everything. Now they are performing,” says Julio Pereira, 43. “I am practically retired from the Circus.”

For the last 150 years, circuses have become a beloved form of entertainment for the working family in Central America. The origin of circuses in Mexico and Central America traces its roots to acrobats and jugglers who performed at bullfighting rings during intermissions all the way to the 1600s and 1700s. In 1785, a documented compañía de voladores, or “acrobats,” was written about in Mexico City. Another performance troupe named Compañía de Volantines del País performed balancing acts and a clown performing a hat dance called Jarabe in 1792. By the 1800s, travelling circuses called “carpas” (tents) became quite popular in northern Mexico.

In 1884, Francisco Sánchez and Ignacio Navarro (Pachito and Nacho) came to Guatemala. Don Nacho founded Circo Navarro in 1886, and that is still the oldest Circus in operation in Guatemala. It’s from there that the circus culture arrived in Honduras.

Ponce Brothers Circus, one of the first that came to Roatan, set up their tent in front of the airport in 2004. Their elephant attached via rope to a stake driven into the ground, would eat grass right by the island’s main road.

We are small, but we have one of the best performances in Honduras.

Times have now changed. There will likely be no more circuses with performing animals visiting Roatan. In 2017, Guatemala banned the use of all animals in circus performances. Despite several circuses resisting, the Animal Defenders International (ADI) organization confiscated any remaining circus animals and transferred them to the centers in South Africa. “This was a global thing. They forbade having animals in circuses,” says Julio, “You can even end up in jail because of that.”

That 150-year tradition of exotic animal acts is pretty much over in Latin America, where it is practically impossible to find an animal circus act. “This has affected the falling interest in the circus greatly,” says Julio.

Prior to the ban in Guatemala, and especially Mexico, most circuses had employed animals like elephants and lions as part of their show. “In circuses, the animals lived well, ate well, reproduced well,” said Julio. “Because we lived for these animals, they were taken care off like stars.”

Al and Jess have music in their veins. Jess was brought up in London by musician parents. Her father wrote his first album, “One for the Road,” a British Folk music classic, when he was 17 Her step father was a saxophonist at the British Royal Academy. “I was always around music,” said Jess. Al began playing the saxophone at around 18. A practical lad, he also served the London Fire Brigade for 30 years.

The couple met in 2014 when Jess was a chef at Books for Cooks, a cookery bookshop on Portobello Road in London. She was baking bread when Al came in with his two golden retrievers, Bill and Ben.

They immediately hit it off. They played music together, and before long embarked on a dramatic change when they purchased a river boat and departed on what turned out to be a many-year tour of English rivers and canals.

In 2020, as England shut down due to COVID, the couple attempted to continue their business. They rented a farmer’s field near their boat, served take away pizza, and played music. Their little enclave of music and pizza gave their guests “a sense of normality,” recalled Al.

“It was a musical food affair”

The lockdowns added an incentive for the family to leave England and see the world. In April 2021, they departed for Central America “looking for a life.”

It took them almost a year to find that. Al, Jess, and their little daughter first arrived in Costa Rica, but they didn’t quite find what they were looking for there. “It felt like it didn’t know what it was,” Al recalled about Costa Rica. “It felt disjointed.”

The couple also missed the sense of community. After 10 months in Costa Rica, the couple bought an old Toyota 4 Runner and headed for Roatan.

Here, Al found exactly what he was looking for. “Roatan felt more like a community, more of a multicultural place. There were American, Irish, Bulgarians and Poles here. (…) It seemed to me what the Caribbean was in 1970s. It had that vibe,” said Al. “When I think of Caribbean Islands, I think of Barbados. Here, it seemed more gritty.”

In January 2022, the couple began playing music at bars and restaurants in West End, Sandy Bay, and West Bay. While Al and Jess mostly play covers of singers like Shade, Amy Winehouse, and Stevie Wonder, they also write their own songs.

The lyrics to their original songs are about what the couple feels most passionate about: their four-year-old daughter, and living on Roatan.

Jess composes the music and writes the lyrics, and Al arranges the songs on the couple’s recording studio in their home in Sandy Bay.

(Click here to read the full article from Berkshire life magazine “Fresh off the boat”, page 64.)

You can also follow the Londoners on social media: @thelondonerscentralamerica

The Second Generation of Roatan’s Fire Dancers

Since 2017, Villeda trained in fire performance and sandcastle artistry under Paul Abel, a Canadian fire artist who pioneered the craft on the island in the early 2000s. “[Paul] was really creative, and that’s what I liked about him,” Villeda said. He collaborated with Abel until 2021, when he purchased the fire show business from him as Abel relocated to the Cayman Islands. While Abel’s venture was known as Island Fire, Villeda’s enterprise now goes by the name Roatan Fire.

Villeda has been performing fire shows for friends since 2010. His permanent shows are at Boat Bar, Mayan Princess, Infinity Bay, Paradise Hotel and Bananarama. In addition to fire shows, Villeda does work as sign maker, tour guide, and sandcastle artist on the island.

Evelyn and Ronis first practice their performances without fire in the backyard of their Mud Hole home. After dry runs, they practice with fire, fueled by premium gasoline. Sometimes the Roatan Fire duo becomes a trio when the couple’s 21-year-old nephew, Junior Villeda, joins the show.

The artistic choices come with some risks. Flames, fueled by premium gasoline, fly several feet before landing on the sand near the dancers. The fire performers use sun cream as a modest precaution against burns. While the couple says they’ve never had accidents involving spectators, they have suffered a few minor burns over the years. “We apply ice to cool the area and use sulfadiazine cream on the burns,” says Evelyn, showing a round mark on her leg where a fire poi had burned her. “The show goes on. I smile as if nothing happened.”

You can follow Roatan Fire on Social Media:
Roatan Fire (Facebook)
@RoatanFire (Instagram)
Roatan Fire Tours (Youtube)
roatanfiretours.com (Website)

The artistic choices come with some risks.

Bobby is Roatan’s Veteran Singer and Songwriter

His musical journey has been a long one. It began when he learned to play a few guitar chords when he was 12, back when JFK was president.
He played harmonica in Chicago’s north side blues clubs. “I got to jam with Eddie Robinson, Mighty Joe Young, and Magic Slim,” says Bobby. “I couldn’t play that good (sic) either, but they let me get up there.”

At 23 Bobby was working as a substitute teacher at his old high school when a friend of a friend mentioned an idyllic island in the Western Caribbean. He was quoting a letter he received from a man named Gordon Ford who lived on Roatan beach, and overlooked a development project for a developer named Bob Plombo.

Bobby tried to look up Bay Islands and Roatan in the local library, “but you couldn’t get hardly anything,” remembers Bobby. Still, the letter was intriguing enough that Bobby forsakes his fascination with Brazil and headed out to Roatan. “The island was a very remote place back then,” says Bobby.

It was 1973, and while hippies were discovering the hippie trail to Kathmandu, Bobby headed out to the Bay Islands. “I came for the adventure. I didn’t have anything holding me down,” Bobby remembers of his first Roatan visit.

For two weeks, he lived in a hexagonal beach house on Palmetto Bay before moving to Crawfish Rock, where he stayed for six months and bought an acre of land for Lps. 1,000 ($500). That purchase sealed his commitment to the island. On the overland journey back to Chicago, through Guatemala and Mexico, he played harmonica every chance he got.

He moved to Roatan permanently in 1974. He lived in Crawfish Rock and French Harbour, supporting his growing family.

Bobby didn’t have any carpentry skills when he first came to the island, but he got his first lesson by preparing posts for his thatched roof house. Within a few years he had a carpentry crew working for him, and, he has supported himself as a carpenter and builder since 1975. A couple of times he had to return to the US to earn a little extra and support his growing family on the island.

His Roatan music adventure developed gradually. His singing debut came in 1981 at the Roatan Yacht Club. It was a place where all the shrimp and lobster fishermen came. “I never sang in my life, but I knew three songs: Rivers of Babylon, Fishin’ Blues and [Me and] Bobby McGee.”

A friend had given him a folder for harmonica music, and someone else gifted him an Ovation fiberglass acoustic guitar that was left behind on a sailboat. His lack of inherent musical skills was overcome by his passion for the music, and before long Bobby’s solo musical career was off to the races. “They didn’t take a long cane and drag me off the stage,” Bobby remembers of his first solo performance at the RYC.

Roatan shaped Bobby Rieman just as much as they shaped his lyrics.

He performed solo from 1981-1996 and wrote his first song “The Roatan song” in the mid 1980s. He played in Bayman Bay Club in Guanaja in the 1990s, and on Utila during the island’s annual Carnivals. “Over the years we played just about everywhere,” says Bobby. “I was in my first band at age 46.”

In 1986 he finally purchased amplifiers. “I was learning, and I was very passionate about that,” says Bobby. In 2000 he recorded his first CD in La Ceiba: “Roatanified.” With Brion James, a professional musician living on Roatan, he recorded two more CDs. All in all, Bobby recorded 34 songs − 33 original and one cover song. “I am proud of that,” he says.

At 73, Bobby still writes songs. His last CD “Putting in Time” was produced in 2017. His song lyrics − just like their titles are melancholic: “Northwest Caribbean Sea,” “Lights are on, but nobody’s home,” “Six Days in between.” Roatan shaped Bobby Rieman just as much as they shaped his lyrics, lyrics that describe the island’s history, idiosyncrasies, quirks, and feel.

Bobby has heard some beautiful voices in his days. He has seen many talented musicians and singers, but one stands out above the rest. “Jeffrey James – that guy had the most excellent presentation and talent with the guitar,” says Bobby. “He was left handed and played the guitar upside down with the low string on the top. He made sounds that you just can’t duplicate.” The two musicians jammed a lot together over the years.

In 2023, Bobby’s band plays at Bananarama on Sundays and at AKR. Bobby’s trio of musicians is called “The Band” and includes two Roatan veterans. Junior Bodden plays the bass and Cornelio Güity is on drums.

Bobby appreciates being heard and creating sound that will live on for decades. “Seeing people moving to what you are doing makes you feel a connection,” says Bobby. “It makes you feel that you are inspiring people to move. That is what music does.”

You can enjoy more Bobby's songs on his Youtube Channel: @bobbyrieman1950

The Colonias in Sandy Bay are a vibrant microcosm of emigrants from all over mainland Honduras. The beauty right outside of his door is full of color, noise and vibrancy. It is the place for many mainlanders to start their lives in the island department. Sandy Bay colonias are a Honduran melting pot where Olanchanos, Misquitos and Capitalinos build their “Roatan dream.”

Elmer is painting using acrylics on small rectangular, dark canvas. The image Elmer paints is of an old man wearing a white hat walking amongst coffee plants in the mountains of mainland Honduras. Elmer had used the Google search engine to locate this image and bring it to canvas and back into a non-digital existence.

“I like paining old faces,” says Elmer. “In old faces you can see their work, toil, happiness and sadness.” While he paints a face of an image he downloaded from google, the world outside his door is full of life, struggle, work, joy.

Elmer Alexander Madariaga Sánchez, 36, signs his work with a four letter acronym: EAMS. He was born in Department of El Paraíso to a family of farmers. His parents moved to Tegucigalpa for economic reasons. Elmer was painting from the time he was nine-years-old.

“I married at an early age. I had children,” says Elmer who decided to interrupt his art studies at UNAH after barely starting. From that point forward his life became centered and focused on supporting his growing family. He completed several courses in fine arts and began working making jewelry in Tegucigalpa.

His life became centered and focused on supporting his growing family.

In 2010 his life took a turn. He moved to Roatan to work at a Diamonds International store as a jeweler. In fact, he still works as a jeweler in the mornings and paints in the afternoons.

He is still growing as a painter. He is working out his style and exploring many painting techniques. He can paint impressionist, surrealist, realist, landscape, and portrait paintings. He likes to paint in acrylic, pastels on canvas, and oil. On the weekends he paints murals and does interior design.

Dennis was born in 1973 in Tela, and he moved with his mother Tomasa to Mango Creek, Independence in Belize when he was one year old. She worked at a banana farm and mango farm in what was then a British Colony. Dennis’ mother is a Garifuna from Triunfo de la Cruz and his father Gell is from La Mosquitia.

He is a self-taught artist. “I drew everything that is around me,” says Luma about his painting days as a young boy growing up in a Belizean seaside village. When he had no money for paints, he would make paints out of plant seeds and discarded items he would find on the street.

Luma remembers being a boy who always found a way to paint. “I was driven to do it… It was something natural in me,” remembers Luma. A Mexican couple, who were visiting tourists saw little Dennis painting and decided to pay for his education at Miguel De Cervantes art school in Quintana Roo.

After a few years he found his way to Roatan. It was 1991 and the island was just starting to register on horizons of travelers and divers. Luma struggled at first, but eventually found a way to support himself as an artist. In 1990s the island was very much off the beaten path. It was like a rich, green canvas waiting to be embraced by artists. “It was beautiful: trees and white sand beaches,” Luma remembers Roatan from that time. “Art is Life. Life is Art. Everywhere you turn around you see some beauty.” He had seen Roatan grow and develop from a sleepy island to a booming tourist destination.

Luma’s art has been echoing that beauty that is quickly disappearing and being replaced. He paints large scale murals, sometime underwater seascapes filled with color, life and sea creatures: octopi, sharks, dolphins. His murals can be seen all over Punta Gorda. “I want the people to know about the Garifuna Culture and be inspired by it,” says Luma. He recently illustrated a book about Garifuna culture.

Luma’s art has been echoing that beauty that is quickly disappearing and being replaced.

Now Roatan is booming and Luma has found his stride focusing on art that resonates with his Garifuna roots. He illustrated the book of Garifuna history. “I am creating emotion that is positive,” says Luma while he stands in the back of a nondescript apartment in West End. His studio is an inspiring backdrop as it faces a wall of green plants and trees.

Luma can’t sit still; he is always up looking for places that could become the canvass of his work. “I do acrylic, I do oil, I do synthetic, I even paint on cars,” says Luma. “It is really hard for me to stop on one thing. The world is really diverse.”

Right now, the most important things in Luma’s life are being recognized by a younger generation and creating awe. “I am proud when a youngster stops by and admires it… That fills me up with joy,” says Luma.

He works with children to create murals. One of his projects is painting a 10 foot by 20-foot mural in front of Sunrise Church in Sandy Bay. Some of his legacy is working with island youth on large murals. “I can be painting all my life, but without a legacy I am not leaving anything,” says Luma.

Austrian Artist Soaked in Utila’s Beauty Through and Through

Gunther has been Utila’s staple since the country was a dictatorship in 1970s. His life is a piece of art itself. It is a collage of life experiences from the time when he was skiing for the Austrian downhill ski team, and when he searched for treasure on Utila with underwater treasure divers. Utila of the 1970s was unspoiled, relaxed, and full of mystery. While the crew didn’t find any treasure, Gunther found that the island itself could be his treasure.

Half a century later Gunther is still full of energy, grit, and humor. Gunther is soaked by the Utila spirit through and through. Barracudas, sharks, and angelfish are what inspire his art. On his wooden pieces Gunther chisels the fish’s scales, eyes, and texture. He uses a poly-acrylic casting resin to give the wood a shiny finish. “I want to imitate the beauty of the underwater scenes. Painting has always been my passion. It is the closest thing I can do to simulate the underwater beauty,” said Gunther.

What is imaginary to most, is an integral part of Gunther’s life.

Another canvas Gunther uses for his art are conch shells that he paints on with nautical themes and mounts on a piece of wood. He loves maps and cartography. He carves out wood to resemble the shape of Utila and then he pours resin inside the openings.

Gunther gets some of his inspiration on his deep SCUBA divers along the island’s north side. And Gunther’s deep, is indeed deep. “You race down full speed with minimum breathing,” Gunther says about his deep dives. What is imaginary to most, is an integral part of Gunther’s life. The Duppy waters dive site on Utila’s north side is one of his preferred dive record setting places. He has been to 127 meters in his SCUBA gear and then spent “plenty of time” decompressing.

Gunther Kordovsky’s art is part of the permanent exhibition and store at the Co-op artist gallery in Sandy Bay, Utila. The gallery was established in 2017 and now exhibits art from 15 members.

Accompanied by her band mates, guitarists Timothy Blanton and Alex Poitier, known collectively as Caron and the two old sexy guys, the 43 year old has been mesmerizing fans with eclectic music that ranges from reggae to blues, and every genre of music in between. “I do a little bit of everything,” says the groovy singer. “I love all kinds of music, and if you come to my house, you might hear a little Otis Redding, some Bob Marley, and even Rancheras”

Caron Pinnace got her first paid gig at the age of eight, singing for one of her uncles and some friends who needed to practice their guitar skills for their church services. “They used to pay me one lempira for my singing, but the real benefit, which I did not realize at the time, was that I got to practice and train my voice”, she recalls.

“I was the girl who sang at wakes and in church programs.”

At the age of ten, while she was fixated on Disney channel and its musical characters, Caron was asked to sing at a Christmas program in Pandy Town’s Methodist church.

While fighting against her nerves and the fear of singing in public, she made her way to the altar. There, her rendition of “Away in a Manger” left the churchgoers in awe, and that was the first time she realized that she could sing.

Before hitting Roatan’s music scene, she sang at different events in her community. “I would sing at wakes, birthday parties, and at church”, she says. “I was the girl who sang at wakes and in church programs”.

Caron’s first musical venture away from her familiar surroundings started six years ago. “My then partner, Paul Cleckner and his Bandidos group members would sometimes practice at our home,” she says. “During one of those practice sessions, I got to sing ‘Summertime’ and was asked to join them at BJ’s Backyard. Fighting against my nerves, I agreed under the condition that I got to sing Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry,’ which is like my musical Anthem and my go-to song when I feel like my show is getting boring,” she smiles. “That’s how I got started.”

The “born and raised Island Girl” a phrase Caron Pinnace uses to introduce herself before each show, sang at the “Music Festival for The Angels” as part of the “April Fool’s” group in 2017, and was invited back the following year.

At the 2018 “Music Festival for the Angels,” she met Blues vocalist Jack de Keyzer. “It was nerve-wracking for me to get on stage. I mean the guest singer was a legend,” she remembers. “They sent me on just before this award-winning artist, and as I made my way to the stage he said, ‘break a leg,’ and after my rendition of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Give me a Reason to Stay Here,’ he approached me again and said, ‘man I told you to break a leg, but you broke a whole body, ” she recalls with a giggle.

Following the festival, she had a show at Beacher’s; in West End. Jack de Keyzer dropped-in hoping to perform a duet with the Island Girl who had impressed him at the festival. “When I got to Beacher’s, the crowd was larger than usual, and I thought something was happening,” she says. “Then I realized they were there because of Jack DeKeyzer. We did a duet ‘Stormy Monday’ and it was amazing!”

That collaboration with Jack De Keyzer catapulted her singing opportunities to another level; most of the venues around the island wanted her to sing at their location.

Caron Pinnace has entertained at Bananarama, Infinity Bay, Beacher’s, Tranquil Seas, and BJ’s. She currently entertains at Marble Hills Farm, Conch Fritters, and Coco View. “I feel good about what my music is doing for me right now. I dreamed about being this far and would love to go further, but what I am living right now is a dream,” She says emphatically “I’m doing the thing I love to do and am in love with someone who loves me back.”

Don’t miss it every Wednesday’s at Conch Fritters “Caron and the Two Old Sexy Dudes.” Noon to 2!

Patty McCulla Sings to the Island’s Content

Both of her parents were musicians: her father played the upright bass in a jazz quartet and her mother played the piano. It is therefore not surprising that because of her background and experience since the ‘80s, McCulla, 59, developed her own distinctive personal style. She combines folk, blues, rock, jazz, R&B, and country into an eclectic show.

Recently Patty came back very excited from a short trip to Oregon, where she spent three years back in 2000 as a soloist with a great band. She covered a ‘ladies’ blues tunes’ from 1939 by Idaa Cox in the historic Veterans Memorial Building in Eugene. “It ended too soon for me to get all the verses in, but man we caught a cool groove!” She misses singing the blues and hopes and prays to find a way to make it happen more again. Patty has been a blues-rock singer for 25 years.

In the ‘80’s she played professionally as a soloist and with a blues/rock/Motown/variety band in Tucson and throughout southern Arizona. She has good memories of Chicago where she lived for ten years in the ‘90s. There she was honored to do her solo act in front of some well-known bands in the diverse musical city.

When Patty moved to Roatan she considered not continuing as a musician anymore. Eventually however she realized her music was still “the gift she came to give.” She got very inspired by the locals, the wonderful residents and visitors of the island, so quitting was not an option. Patty wrote two songs about her island Roatan, ‘On Roatan’ and ‘It’s Another Beautiful Day on Roatan.’ She speaks likes she is almost singing, and gets inspired on the spot, that’s the way she starts to write her lyrics.

On Roatan
I can be who I am
On Roatan I can be me
On the isle of Roatan finest people in a jungle wonderland,
Nobody judges you
They just love you, on Roatan.

Chorus from “On Roatan” song lyrics

Patty is always ready for a new adventure and Big Rock Amphitheater in Pensacola is her newest one. Together with her husband Vernon Albert they have almost finished it’s construction, in a beautiful spot in Flowers Bay. “My idea is that this Amphitheater will be a ‘music and arts center that will feature musicians from all over the world,” says Patty in her warm, velvet voice. “We hope to bring talent over from the mainland of Honduras as well, having island parties on the weekends and special concerts and jams on other nights.” The structure sits right on the beach, in its ‘rocky’ environmental little bay; you will experience a beautiful view of the ocean. In this way, she continues to ‘follow her bliss.’

Most recently and together with the talented Guatemalan artist Luis de la Rosa, Patty recorded two songs about Greta Thunberg, the Swedish child environmentalist figure. Patty wrote lyrics for two songs: ‘To Greta with Love’ and ‘How Dare you?!’ Luis de la Rosa added his soul fire, and original music to the song.

Meet this energetic, humble, inspiring artist Patty McCulla’s with American roots rock, bluesy stuff, Motown, island-style, classic rock and originals this Thursday 19th at Pensacola (5:30 PM – 9 PM) for an epic holiday party featuring ‘The Guitar Club’.