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 Paradoxical Consistency of Vain Actions

While most of us have already decided what COVID-19 is and how we trust the narrative that media and governments have given us. Still a few basic questions linger unanswered for almost a year. Our life and destiny on Roatan is directly connected to events happening in US and Europe. With Christmas “cancelled” in greater part of the western world we can at least take a time to reflect on how we got here.

Where is “patient zero” and why is no one asking about him?
The notoriously lying Chinese authorities originally reported that the first Coronavirus case took place on 31 December, 2019 near animal market in Wuhan. At a later one point Wuhan Institute of Virology scientist Huang Yanling was speculated to be patient zero, before she disappeared amidst silence from authorities and media. In every modern epidemic: from Spanish flu to AIDS authorities have found their patient zero, but in case of COVID-19 no one seems to bother looking.

Why did CIA, NSA, etc not tell us how the virus originated so we could sleep better at night? 
It can be a bit frustrating not knowing if the COVID-19 originated in a bat soup, was an accidental release from a Wuhan Institute of Virology, or was spread on purpose. Without knowing the circumstances of the COVID-19 origins we can’t really make any coherent strategies how to prevent appearance of subsequent COVIDS. The two dozen “US security agencies,” that didn’t keep us safe in the first place nor seem to care to keep us free from anxiety.

Why no one did or insisted on cost benefit analysis of “saving lives” versus shutting down business, schools and churches? 
Any sizable business or organization that wants to survive will do a profit-loss analysis before shutting down their operation at a large scale. That is just pure logic. Yet with the exception of Sweden, Belarus, Taiwan and South Dakota vast majority of governments have not done so. Spikes in untreated cancers and heart disease, suicides and drug overdose have outnumbered the deaths from COVID-19. These deaths of misery and neglect occur often not in the “over 60 COVID vulnerable” but amongst the most productive segment of the population: people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

Why after more than a year can’t the US get a congressional commission to tell us the cause of appearance of COVID-19 and its spread? 
A week after JFK was assassinated Warren Commission was created to prove to the American public that a lone gunman killed the US president. Ten weeks after 9/11 a commission was established that assured the Americans that the al-Qaida hijackers were responsible of flying a commercial airplane into the Pentagon’s accounting office. Now over a year after the COVID-19 outbreak there is no will for establishing a commission to determine who is to blame.

If so many pharmaceutical companies can develop a “great vaccine” in 10 month, why were the same companies taking 10-15 years to develop other vaccines in the first place? 
Developing good, reliable safe vaccines is not easy and takes time. That time is measured in years and sometimes decades and the procedures of creating helpful and profitable vaccines have been worked for over a century. When a dozen pharmaceutical companies in countries from China, Russia and USA develop a COVID-19 in 10 months instead of 10 years mistakes will inevitably be made and will have long lasting consequences.

Whom do I sue when I suffer serious negative consequences of a vaccine? 
After their indemnity deals with many governments the pharmaceutical companies have no interest in providing a safe COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine manufacturers will not suffer a financial risk when their vaccines will do harm. And yes, practically all vaccines have a percentage of patients with serious side effects.

If there are multiple strains of Coivid-19, do we have to shelter in place another 10 months to have new vaccines developed? 
Flue and COVID viruses mutate – that is their nature. Therefore vaccines for one strain of a virus are useless or at least not very useful for other ones.

Who decided that value of “life at all cost” outweighs “right to live free?” 
In World War II we were told to sacrifice, and die so our families and foreign lands could be free. Seventy millions people died in World War II fighting for freedom. It’s perplexing that only 80 years later we are told we need to sacrifice or basic freedoms – freedom of expression, worship, travel “not to even risk getting exposed” to COVID-19.

Why governments wouldn’t allow or even promote for its citizens to have ample access to spiritual nourishment and churches? 
For millennia churches have adapted to functioning in times of plagues much more deadly than COVID-19: Black Plague, typhus S and Spanish flu. In times of crisis many people become closer to God and rediscover their faith. As a consequence they become stronger, better people. This is not being allowed to happen during the COVID-19 restrictions. “We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health,” wrote archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.