DESPITE being visually impaired, Linden brothers, 17-year-old Relon and 15-year-old Roell Sumner, have commenced their singing careers after recording their first song, which is the theme song for Linden Town Week (LTW) 2019.

The duo goes by the stage name ‘Original lyrics’ and they have already written over 15 songs using catchy dancehall/soca beats. They however related that their preferred genre is dancehall. ‘Money Time’, was the first song they wrote about two years ago. The duo has also mastered the art of freestyling and has wowed crowds in the Blue Berry Hill community. People were astonished , that despite their disability, they can flow and rap lyrics in split seconds.

The LTW theme song is entitled ‘Town Week Time Again’ and was recorded at Elevate Studios. The song highlights the excitement and hype associated with the annual event, which attracts thousands of people to the mining town. “It is basically talking about Linden Town Week, the fun, how we enjoy it; it talks about Poker Street Lime and how you roll out, bringing a vibe to the people them to see what it is all about,” Relon said.

The duo is hoping that the song will create the traction and support they need to be recognised as local artistes, so that they can achieve their dream of recording and performing more of the songs they have written.

While Roell is a high achiever at the Mackenzie High School, Relon, unfortunately, had to drop out of Mackenzie High in fourth form, because of limited provisions for visually impaired students. Despite not being able to complete his secondary education, which would have made him qualified for a job, he believes that music will be his gateway to success. “I always say I want music to carry me at the top to really build my life, but the way how Guyana going right now, I’m seeing it as a real big challenge; but I’m just hoping to get to the top because that’s what everybody wants– to get to the top,” Relon posited
The two siblings work as a team. They have five other siblings and two others also suffer from low vision. Their mother Ronella Waldron was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, a disease that occurs in foetuses infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite, which is transmitted from mother to foetus. In cases where the mother does not miscarry, the child may be born with serious and progressive visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, and other problems. Impaired vision, however, is most common. Her third son Dimitry Waldron, also a high achiever at the Mackenzie High School, has low vision, but assists his brothers with writing their songs when they create and memorise the lyrics in their heads. “If we get a song that we want write, we does memorise it first in we head and whenever it done fix up, we does sit with him and he does write it. Sometimes we do it by verse and then the chorus.”

Because of assistance from their family circle, being visually impaired is far from a deterrent to the brothers, who believe they will be the Stevie Wonders of Guyana, in years to come. They are currently working on two soca songs, which will be submitted for the Junior Soca Monarch competition in 2020.

The brothers are also pleading with local promoters, and DJs, especially at the radio station in Linden, to not shun them because of their disability, but to give them an equal chance as other local artistes, whom they see as their equals. They are also encouraging other youths who are differently abled, to reach for the stars, to push against every stumbling block, so that they too can achieve greatness.