Gillian Moore steps into calypso ring

Many know her as a folk singer, usually with a guitar in hand, a woman who is prominent in the local underground music scene, who provided a platform for singers, musicians and poets with her open-mic series Songshine.

Now, singer, songwriter and poet Gillian Moore, 52, has entered the calypso arena with a bang, as she is a finalist in the NWAC (National Women’s Action Committee) Calypso Queen competition and part of the Kalypso Revue tent in Arima.

Moore explained she was encouraged to do so when she did a fundamentals of calypso composition and performance class as part of her Master of Carnival Arts programme at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, of which she is in her final semester.

The assignment was to write a calypso and look at what went into doing that.

“I felt very inspired by this course and tried my hand.

"I didn’t picture myself getting onto the stage myself, but I was really happy with what I made. I sent the songs to some people and their reactions were positive so I was encouraged to go forward. I decided to try auditioning and I was successful with the auditions.”

Adopting the sobriquet Fire Tender, Moore auditioned for NWAC with Fire Tender Coming Down, a homage to the calypso genre and some of the greats that inspired her over the years. For Kalypso Revue, which opens on January 19, she went with the more risque song, The Horn Player.

“It’s extremely humbling. Calypso is so iconic of TT, it’s so precious, that I really take it as a great honour to be selected.”

She said her thesis was on one of her inspirations, the late Aldwyn “Lord Kitchener” Roberts, so she was honoured to be part of his tent.

Moore recalled that in 2003 she auditioned for Divas Calypso tent and the NWAC competition. She said she grew up loving calypso and her music always had a local element to it.; so much so that foreigners identified it as calypso, even though locals saw it as folk, alternative or rock.

Unfortunately, she was not selected and she realised not any song could be a calypso.

“I'm a poet and a songwriter. I've written in many genres, and for it to be good, calypso has to have metre, it has to have a certain rhyming pattern and it has to have a certain attitude. I'm hoping that I can live up to those aims on the people stage.”

With that positive attitude, she said she feels as if things are “coming together” for her, so she plans to register for the Calypso Monarch competition.

“Why not? Who am I to count myself out? I’m telling you, it feels like I’m stepping into myself in a whole new way.

“I’ve always loved calypso, but, having tried early in my career, I’ve felt that it was beyond me. But I guess I just didn’t have the tools and the knowledge.

“I will say that, having studied it formally as a form, I understand the difference. I understand that what I was doing before would have been good, but it was not a calypso. That new knowledge is what helped me to write the new songs.”

Moore told WMN she is thrilled to be part of the calypso world and feels as if she has already won. She fully intends to continue to write and perform calypso.

She added that she has a lot of respect for the culture around calypso, which was one of the reasons she adopted a sobriquet. She was actively thinking about it when, one day, a friend used the term “fire tender” and she found it sounded like a calypso name.

“It’s about tending to the calypso flame – being the guardian, the protector, the tender of that sacred calypso flame. But also controlling it and not letting it get too hot – like a fancy sailor who tends the furnace of the engine with their stick.”

Also, she said, she is known to perform with her guitar, which was limiting, because it did not allow people to see what she could do. When people think about her as a singer they think “soft and gentle” or tender, so she wanted to step out from behind her instrument, flex other parts of her performing personality, turn that image in its head and embrace a more rounded persona.

She added that last year she participated in the Ministry of Tourism Culture and the Arts’ Mentoring by the Masters project with veteran theatre practitioner Ellen (Helen) O'Malley Camps. It gave her a push to step outside of her comfort zone and away from the “quiet girl with the guitar” image.

Moore started singing professionally at 21 with a band in Kiskadee Karavan, but soon went solo.

Growing up in Arima, she was always interested in the arts, specifically painting, theatre and music. And while both her parents were “academically inclined,” they always wholeheartedly supported her artistic endeavours.

“Music was just always in the household. I sang at church and in school. My dad was a big old-time calypso and music aficionado, and so I was always into singing.”

She started working in journalism in 1994 and wrote columns in the Guardian and Express. She went on to become an arts and entertainment journalist, editor, sub-editor and photographer.

From 2004-2009 she produced Songshine, which provided a platform for singers, musicians and poets. And in 2011, she graduated with a postgraduate diploma in arts and cultural enterprise management from UWI.

She said some of her major challenges were not having the means to record or support a band, even though she has written many songs, as well as having made unsuccessful attempts to get sponsorship for Songshine.

“It’s a small, intimate show, and of course a sponsor wants to reach a larger audience. And, of course, not doing music that people recognise as ‘Trini music’ puts you into kind of alternative grouping, so maybe people aren’t as willing to support that.”

However, she received a grant from MusicTT some years ago that helped her bring out her first album, Everchanging. She also has the support and encouragement of many in the entertainment industry.

She said one of the main things that keeps her going is that many people who participated in Songshine, including some who went on to do “great things,” told her the Songshine stage was nurturing to them and important to their journey.

Moore would also like to paint again and possibly try sculpting and film in the future, but said that depended on when she had the time and money.

“But I think, in this instance, I am in a great place as far as working to my strengths – the theatrical, the musical and the composition.”