The Lashing Dogs, a string band from the British Virgin Islands

Though I've never been to the British Virgin Islands, I learned about the folk group The Lashing Dogs, who hail from Tortola (the largest of the British Virgin Islands), while I was in Anguilla in 2003 and found their music in a record store. My experience has been, at least on some occasions, that you can't find the music from certain artists on the island they're from but rather come across it on another island. This was the case with a band from Anguilla called Happy Hits whose music I found at a store on nearby St. Martin.


My friend Carlson Velasquez, the guitarist I met in St. Martin (see my Oct. 13, 2007 post at http://latin-caribbean-travelblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/caribbean-st-martin-2002.html), was very familiar with them, as the string band tradition is common to the US and British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin, Saba, Statia, St. Kitts and Nevis.

When Carifesta took place in Trinidad in 2006, The Lashing Dogs were one of the featured groups. The music, with its banjo at the lead, has an easy-going beat that is not as frenetic as modern Caribbean dance music.

Visit my webpage on the Caribbean at http://www.latinandcaribbeantravel.com/caribbean.html

Other websites:

Caribbean Folk Arts Network (Caribfolk) - Caribbean cultural network: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribfolk/

Raices Culturales Latinoamericanas (Latin American Cultural Roots) - a nonprofit organization I founded in 1991 that presents Latin American cultural shows, exhibits, and workshops: http://www.raicesculturales.org/

Raicesnews - Latin cultural events in the Philadelphia area: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/raicesnews