Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer 
CARLINGTON WILMOT, Freelance Photographer -
Falcons performing live at Redbones Café.
WESTERN BUREAU:
A FLIGHT of Falcons four of them took musical flight at Redbones the Blues Café on Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, on Friday night.
It was not an unguided tour through the world of 'Blues & Traditional Music', as the evening with the musicians was billed, as the gaggle of onlookers was given in-flight information by Barry, the leader and accordion player of the quartet.
The others were Lennox Duncan on drums and keyboards, 'Sir Robert' Lawson on guitar and Merlene Cobourne-Lawson, his wife, on percussions. All sang.
However, while The Falcons heard it from their audience they could not see them. With Ray, the movie on Ray Charles' life, hot at the cinemas, it was almost a case of Jamie Foxx times four in real life at Redbones.
All the members of The Falcons are blind.
In fact, Ray Charles' music came early in the show, as Barry, whose voice mutated to fit song and mood for the night, followed up the rollicking (Woman Is) Smarter with Georgia, his dark glasses leaning with the angle of his inclined head and in contrast to his white sideburns.
Accepting the applause of the audience, Barry announced that 'Robert is going to take on Otis Redding and Sitting On The Dock of The Bay. And Robert did just that, his guitar leading off and his wife singing
harmony.
APPLAUSE
There was no time for the applause to subside before Robert continued with Dreams To Remember.
"When I was coming here I was told that we should do a little jazz," Barry said, duly obliging with You Make Me Feel So Young. Lennox took over for two songs, before Barry took it back home with a very Caribbean theme. "Most places you go in the Caribbean, there is an interesting thing. You go and you see a man and a woman and the children, but there is something that you do not know about him," he said. With that, The Falcons examined the 'shame and scandal in the family', knowing chuckles rising as they hit the line "your Papa aint your Papa but your Papa don't know".
It was not a refined concert, with dramatic flair and prearranged pauses and, with microphones being used for all the instruments, one was left to swing between Barry and Robert, being moved over to Lennox when needed. The selections, though, were impeccable and the music came from the heart.
The musical flight went over varied terrain, allowing a bird's eye view of Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Lou Rawls and Billy Joel, the husband and wife team of Robert and Merlene sharing the song.
WILLIE NELSON SOUNDALIKE
Ray Charles' music was a constant throughout the night and Barry returned to the catalogue with Seven Spanish Angels, his voice changing to a very good Willie Nelson soundalike where appropriate.
The 'yard' feel was not excluded, Ernie Smith's One Dream hitting the spot.
There were times, though, when vocals were redundant, a keyboard led Duke Ellington medley and Dreamboat being those occasions in the musical flight of The Falcons at Redbones.
And there was the playful side, Barry donning a falsetto for Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop, Ernie Smith's Tears On My Pillow giving another side to the Jamaican sound.
The Falcons kept it slow with She's Gone Again and Don't Play It No More from Ben E. King, before ending on a rocking, foot-tapping note with Let The Good Times Roll.
With music in their bones, even after they had finished playing and recorded music took over, The Falcons tapped and swayed in place, before being led off stage.
