by John Sealy

THE HILLY environs of the rural St John with their natural echoes might very well have helped a young Adrian Clarke to hone his vocals. But there is no disputing that he has one of the more versatile voices in Barbados which does not fail to woo attention from anyone who comes within ear shot.

And Adrian, a former student of Society Primary and Princess Margaret Secondary, has the hardware to show that his tenor voice has been working for him.

He shot to national prominence in 1992 when he won the Richard Stoute Teen Talent Competition as a 20-year-old and has toured with one of Barbados' biggest bands, Troubadours International.

Adrian moved into the calypso arena in 1993, placing third in the Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso competition among the then big guns of Serenader and Observer.

He continued to thrill audiences with the Troubadours right up to 1995, later teaming up with kaiso brass band Coalition for extensive travelling regionally and internationally.

The big moment in calypso came in 2001 when he won the Pic-O-De-Crop monarchy and was a consistent finalists, with the exception of 2003, up to his other Pic-O-De-Crop crown in 2008. After that there was not much to Adrian's musical escapade's because he worked as a quality control supervisor from 2004 with a janitorial firm until he resigned last March.

Thirty-seven years later, the former resident of Society St John now father of two children, a 14-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, two kaiso crowns under his belt, and a reputation as one of Barbados' greatest exponents of calypso, Adrian is at the crossroads and is thinking seriously of dancing to another rhythm.

"I was hearing 'this boy can sing" at primary school, at secondary and after school. Today this is all I am still hearing "this boy can sing," says an articulate Adrian facetiously.

"When I think about it. I have done the cruise ships already. That was kind of boring. If I had to do that again I don't think that I would want to be any part of a calypso band. After a while it got monotonous," he noted.

Is Adrian experiencing a similar boredom with Crop-Over?

"Right now as far as Crop-Over goes, the question is what else is there to do. I have won the calypso crown twice. I am not saying that I don't like doing it. I like to go out there and perform with the tents; backstage is probably the best part of it .

"When you get on stage, it is good when an audience can appreciate you and when you come off you hear, 'this boy got throat' (a Trinidadian expression for being able to sing well).

"I was fortunate to place in the top ten of the first International Soca Monarch. Mac Fingall placed sixth and I placed seventh in 1996."

He said it was good to go out there and get your message over, but then "it is the same old same old". You get to the semis, the Finals and that is where the headache starts".

Adrian said the challenge of sponsorship raises its head and the accompanying costs of having to finance being in the Finals.

"My expenses this year were probably the highest in a while. The winner gets $10 500 and from eighth to tenth each gets about approximately $4 500. Compared to the expenses that is no money. I have been fortunate to be working with South Central so I got the aid and I must thank the City of Bridgetown.

"The thing is to reach that finals and place in the top two where you are sure about $16 000 and a car that you can sell, if necessary to make back something."

Adrian, who came sixth in this year's finals, said this year was a loss for him.

"I am wondering if I should really continue with competition and step away from it for a while. I do not think that I should step away from the arena, but maybe the competition aspect of it. I feel I should be doing more than going up and singing 12 minutes in songs. And then what? I want to be able to do other genres.

"Reggae is something I always wanted to do. One of my favourite groups being Morgan Heritage. Calypso is now in a corner waiting to get dusted off then to come out and do something next year, poor thing," lamented Adrian.