By Vishani Ragobeer and Daniel Haynes
IT’S A NEW YEAR and in Guyana, one of the first celebrations we begin preparing for, is our Mashramani. During this time, throughout the Children’s competitions into the adult celebrations and gyrations one song you are sure to hear is the patriotic but upbeat- “Arrowhead.”

However, not many know the singer of this song- Courtney Noel, a son of the soil and one of the most talented individuals ever produced from Guyana’s shores.
“I couldn’t sing to save my life,” Noel said offhandedly as he reminisced, “I couldn’t carry a tune to save my life.”
He highlighted that his elder sister Cheryl was the really talented one who was always singing and dancing but noted too that the creative vibe flowed through his family. He recounted too, that his grandmother played the harmonica (and she was self-taught), his father wrote poetry and his elder brother who writes screenplays now, always had a knack for writing.

Despite not being as talented as his family members, especially not as talented as Cheryl, Courtney knew that singing and expressing his creativity was just what he wanted to be doing. He believes that his talent was already in him, probably due to his ancestral heritage and maybe he just “willed” it into emergence because of how badly he wanted it.
The 55-year-old revealed that he has been a part of the “jack-about” trade of singing, song-writing and writing screenplays for about 20 years and attested that he has written hundreds, maybe even thousands of songs- despite not studying music professionally nor learning how to play any instruments.

Moreover, one of his original songs has remarkably been used by UNICEF in Guyana for their ‘Unite for Children-unite against AIDS’ campaign and well, “Arrowhead” can attest to his prowess even though he affirms that he isn’t a soca singer.
Noel explained, “There are no perimeters for my creative spirit.” He highlighted that he could hear a tune being played by a piano and instantly he could write a song.

Despite sometimes being frustrating and other times being absolutely fun, “It [songwriting] has gotten much easier as I’ve gotten older,” Courtney said. He said that he can find a subject to base his songs on, then he ponders upon the elements of the subject he wants to highlight and then he is just able to write- with the accompanying tunes playing in his mind.
Although explicitly talented, Courtney did not exploit his talent entirely here in Guyana. Leaving Guyana in 1979, the musician spent his time working with the United Nations but found the time to fiddle around with music and screenplays and making them a big part of his life.

Currently however, Noel is in Guyana promoting his new song- ‘Chutney Gyal’, his first song stepping into the Chutney arena.
This song was inspired by a girl working at the Guyana Permit Mission in New York and while on a train heading back to Brooklyn, he found himself spewing lyrics about this girl and he knew he had to document what he was singing.
He gave a sample of exactly what came to his mind at the time:

“The pleasures of the Kama sutra you keep inside your hips, baby
The treasures of the Taj Mahal can’t compete with your lips, lady
The tabla drum, the sitar strum, I hear heaven calling …”
Eventually this song would incorporate Hindi in its lyrics and would become- “Chutney Gyal” and he would get Terry Gajraj to be a part of the song too.
He noted that he involved Terry Gajraj in his work since Terry is “a renowned chutney king” and, according to Noel, “the Guyanese entertainer who has literally flown the flag at more places than anyone else.”

“I want to make a point about races working together with this song,” he said after highlighting the seemingly endless racial discourses he has found emanating from Guyanese, especially on social media. He also disclosed that this song is a “precursor” to another project he has in mind.
The project, according to Courtney is the creation of a film. “I’ve been talking about this for ten years and I’m praying that this year is it.”
He explained that the film, like the song “Chutney Gyal” is about an inter-racial love story that starts in Richmond Hill, New York and ends in the Iwokrama canopy, Guyana. The working title of this film is “Similar differences.”
The screenplay took him about three months to write after writing for about three hours each day.

“There are so many moving parts of this project,” he disclosed and expanded on the soundtrack aspect which will draw artistes from all of the diaspora.
He also said that the project would feature other local talents such as fashion designers Sonia Noel, visual artists and every other creative sector within the Guyanese society and will highlight Guyana’s panoramic beauty with scenes of the Kaieteur Falls and Iwokrama canopy being in the film.
“My idea is for Guyana to look sexy when this film is finished,” he underscored.
While he remains hopeful that his dream of this film becoming a reality very soon, his next move will be to create positive inspirational songs.

To be able to express himself honestly, through music; through film, or whatever other medium he uses is something he strives towards.
Believing in his spirit and the spirit of his ancestors, his advice remains: “Go hard all the time and go harder when it’s that time”.