Eddie Minnis and Ronnie Butler drop new singles

Thu, Feb 18th 2016, 11:43 PM

After a year of critiques and tweaks to ensure that they put out the best product that they could at this point in their careers, music legends Ronnie Butler and Eddie Minnis have unleashed two new singles. And these singles take you back to an era when the storytelling style of Bahamian music was more simplistic and easy on the ears. The lyrics really told the story.

The singles "Don't Judge The Day By The Morning" and "Will We ever Be the Same Again ... In the Sunshine were both penned by Minnis, 68, who also recorded the former song, while Butler, 78, lent his vocals to the latter single, a ballad.
"Don't Judge The Day By The Morning" is a song that will resonate across generations as it speaks to continuing to trying again, if you don't succeed the first time; and speaks to the fact that the longest journey begins with the first step, and that while the first step may not be positive, that doesn't mean a person should stop.

"It's really helping people to not get put off by starts, and that it is the one who endures to the finish," said Minnis.

"The song appeals to anybody because all of us need encouragement, especially the young people today, because we live in an instant world where text messaging, emails... where people want things instant-coffee-like, fast food. This is really appealing to persons to take their time, do their planning and work at it, and that results come from effort and persevering."

"Will We ever Be the Same Again ... In the Sunshine" may just now have been released, but it's lyrics were written in the early 1970s. Minnis just didn't record it until now.

"It's one of those songs that just would not let me go. It begged to be recorded. It just kept replaying in my head over the years. You create the songs, and you never forget them."

"Don't Judge The Day By The Morning" was written back in 1986. " 'Don't Judge' particularly kept going over and over in my mind and I said I have to release this song because it has a message."

"Will We ever Be the Same Again ... In the Sunshine" sung by Butler has a message that has so many layers, but focuses on relationships  -- the sunshine that is present in new love, the dark clouds that can cover it after a while -- and helping people to appreciate that they can try to get the relationship back to the level it was prior to the clouds. It's a song Minnis said was suited to Butler's baritone voice.

"I know my limitations," said Minnis when he spoke to recording one song over the other.

"We've been working together like this for years. Some of the songs I sing, some of the songs he [Butler] sings, because some songs suit his voice better than mine. I know my limitations. He's the crooner, he can sing anything ... I'm sort of restricted to the island flavor music," said Minnis.

In the release of the two new singles, Minnis and Butler went through Minnis' collection of songs, some written from as far as back as 1971. He said when Butler checked the lyrics to "Will We ever Be the Same Again ... In the Sunshine" he claimed that song for himself.

"He liked the melody and he also liked the message, and so I knew that this would be a song he could bring out much better."

The adult contemporary and R&B songs Minnis said have been produced to the best of their ability today. He said he always tries to put his best foot forward with whatever he does. Minnis, Butler and Fred Ferguson had been working on the projects since December 2014, and doing it long distance as Minnis resides on Eleuthera; Butler and Ferguson were resident on New Providence. Technology he said was key in them getting the product right.

"With the Internet, [Ferguson] was able to email me versions of the song as it progressed, and we did critiques, so we've been building the songs. It's taken this long because we weren't rushing anything. We were just working on it, adding layers, taking away things, because we want to produce music that's going to be on an international level."

The songs are only available online at music sites such as CD Baby, Amazon and iTunes. They expect to release lyric videos produced by Sean Grazette for the singles on YouTube, as early as next week.

Minnis' latest single comes almost 45 years after his first recording -- "Miss Lye" -- which was recorded in 1971 with Kenny and the Beach Boys. Since then he has a body of work that encompasses some 80 songs and six full-length albums, and a slew of hits -- such as "Naughty Johnny", "Shot Gun Weddin'", "Mike", "Never Satisfied", "People to People", "Goin' Ter Pick up Der Mail", "Sugar Apple Guinep", and "Finance Man".

After the recording of "Miss Lye" he began working with Butler and they've been together ever since. The first of many recording projects for the duo was the ballad -- "Our Love is Going To Make It", which was popular. According to Minnis, while this may be his first release in a few years --  his last album was his Greatest Hits #3 -- he does not plan for this single to be his last. He has approximately a dozen new songs he's working on that he says are at different stages of development that he's taking his time with. It's the artistic drive that pushes him to continue to do what he does.

"Your mind keeps saying put those songs out there, so a lot of the songs are different from what people are used to hearing from me, but they are message songs that I feel are quite relevant to The Bahamas today."

Minnis is not only known for his musical storytelling, he's also a well-known artist. He has always liked painting from his formative years. He also liked music as well, and even took violin lessons. He never developed a passion for the instrument, and did not progress.

While attending McGill University, Canada, poetry was a part of his English 101 course. He didn't get into it at that time, but the next year, he said the poetry filtered through to him. He started writing his thoughts in poems. At the same time he said he recognized that he had never really read poetry, and that he didn't think anyone was going to read his, and wondered how he was going to get the messages he felt strongly about out to the public.

"I don't know where I got the notion from, but I decided if I put it in song fashion, people could get the message without having to read it. And then my thoughts started coming to me in song fashion -- lyrics, melody ... the complete song. But I couldn't write music, so I would memorize it. And then the collection started growing, and I started going to the different musicians, because I never viewed myself as a singer, to ask them if they would like to record my songs. They weren't interested.

"Kenny and The Beach Boys finally said they would do 'Miss Lye'. Ronnie heard Ms. Lye and said come work with me. He was the only one I hadn't approached because he had Burma Road and all those other hits. He was a good songwriter, who needs Eddie Minnis? But it worked very well and we've been working together ever since; with Ronnie's assistance and coaching, I've recorded about 80 songs so far," he said.

As for his favorite recording, it's a tough thing for Minnis to decide with his body of work. But he says what he has learnt is that it's not what he likes best, but what the public will actually like.

"You put out an album, and think this is the one the public will actually like and they pick something else. If I can go by history, "Naughty Johnny" is perhaps one of the classics because the children spontaneously created a ring play to the song, and then there are songs like "Church Out, Crab Crawling" and a situation where I would go past a group, and someone would shout out 'church out' and I've got to respond 'crab crawling'. But each of the songs are special for me, because the songs are inspired by actual happenings, or ideas that came to me based on what I see happening in society.

"Some of the songs I thought were really solid might have been played once and that's about it, so the public really decides," he said.

And in signature Eddie Minnis fashion, Granny B. and Fleabs are on the cover art for the new singles. Granny B. and Fleabs are Minnis' signature.

"When I released my first album I used Granny and Fleabs, and ever since then, all of my releases featured them in some way. It's like a signature. And I can use them to tell a story."

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