Greetings, all!

I'll be in Aruba in a few weeks (August 16-22) with my bandmates (second trip for three of us... first trip for two) and while our style is primarily Celtic (with a bit of jazz, and folk, and other odd things scattered through... we call it "Eclectic Celtic". (If anybody wants to check out our band, our web site is here.

We all love music of all styles, and one of the band members is an ethnomusicologist, so we're hoping to hear some local bands while we're there. We're not interested in hearing the "recycled for the tourists" pop cover tunes... we want to hear Aruban music.

So... where would you suggest we go? Any particular bands we should watch for? We're staying in Savaneta, so we can easily go to either end of the island or somewhere in between.

Debbie G.

debbie, ever hear of a group called schooner fare? they do a bit of celtic and folk. love their music did you ever appear at WFMA(world folk music assn) held in the dc area every january?

and just to make sure that it is still an aruba topic, where will you be staying?

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Hi, Sherry!

I hadn't run across Schooner Fare, but I've bookmarked their site and will look around for some of their music. Thanks for the lead! Wild Mercy is pretty much confined to the midwest right now (based in Indianapolis)... we all have "day jobs" and one member (our harpist... who'd love to get a harp gig or two in Aruba to justify the cost of shipping the harp down) is a church music director, so it's tough for us to travel too far afield for gigs.

A friend of my sister's has a house in Savaneta and he rents it out when it's not being used for family vacations, so we're staying there. It makes for a great central location... we can go to San Nicholas or Oranjestad in about the same amount of time... and I love the peace and quiet on the big wraparound porch. (Well, it's peaceful except when the goats from across the way decide to wander the neighborhood... they can be entertainingly noisy!)

Debbie G.

hi

we were down in april of this year and went to garufas lounge
across from el gaucho's after dinner for drinks.

they had a wonderful local band. i dont remember the name
but they were great. nice place that locals hang out at

great martinis too!!! have a great trip!

lynn

There are a lot of local bands that play at various areas in Oranjestad on weekends. Aruba is big on culture and encourages local musicians and artists. There is probably information through the local arts council that will tell you where they will be playing when you are there. They had several bands playing at the seaport mall area on the weekends the last couple of times we were there. It was like a locals concert.

Thanks for the tips! Lynn, according to Garufas website, it looks like they've got a jazz/latin combo on Thursdays and Fridays... maybe that's who you heard? Our guitarist is a big jazz fan, so we may have to check that out one evening.

ArubaBob, it's great to know that there's stuff at the seaport mall and areas like that, and that the local musicians are encouraged. I hate the homogenization (I think I misspelled that) that happens in many tourist areas, where the local music gets overshadowed by what the resorts and restaurants "think" the tourists want to hear. I spent so much of my last trip to Aruba in the water that I didn't have much time (or energy!) to go out looking for music, so that's a much higher priority on this trip.

Any idea if the arts council has a website or where we can find them to check for a schedule once we get there? I'm not having any luck finding them w/ Google.

Thanks!

Debbie G.

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Some people like to have lots of cats and dogs around, or art on the walls, or shelves full of mementos. I like drums; they calm me.

Many saturday nights Tattoo party boat has local bands. Also, every sunday Moomba beach has good local bands playing at around 6:30 or so. Lacabana has great local bands playing there daily during happy hours.