Phil Stubbs is arguably one of the greatest Bahamian storytellers, ever. His music is the stuff of legends - they not only tell his story, but they are relatable to all Bahamians. And it is this ever-popular storytelling wordsmith who has not performed live in decades, outside of one time earlier this year, who will be taking to the amphitheater stage at the Nassau Cruise Port.
Stubbs, whose discography includes songs like "Bonefish Folley", "West End Move", "Oh Cat Island", "Stress", "Da Flu", "Gofa", "Sir Milo Butler" and more recently "Whistle Papa" - songs that literally tell a Bahamian story will be in concert on Saturday, October 14. Also performing will be Fanshawn and Ira Storr & The Spank Band.
"It means everything to me," said Stubbs of his upcoming live performance. "Because a person my age, getting on stage and exciting young people, right up to grannies, that says the world to me.
"My health was not the best for quite a while, and now that I'm coming out in the clear, I better do this now before I disappear," said the 73-year-old Stubbs.
He takes great pride in being able to perform live for only the second time this year, but his first full-fledged concert in two decades.
"I want it to be a big celebration between me and the Bahamian people."
With the body of songs from which Stubbs has to choose, he could probably sing all night.
"I don't know if my age will allow me to do that, but definitely, I will be performing well over an hour because I have so many songs that the Bahamian people love. I cannot go onstage and don't spend like an hour ... hour-and-a-half."
And he knows he will run into problems as he puts his set list together. With so many songs he could perform, he knows something someone wants to hear will get left out and they let him know.
"They would say, you didn't sing 'Age'. You didn't sing 'West End Move'. What about 'Cat Island'? ... come on now.'
"So, I have a problem cause the last time I was on stage, I didn't do 'Age'. But I did 15 songs in their entirety, which takes a while, but I didn't do 'Age', and this young man came up to me and said, 'Mr. Stubbs, it was a beautiful show, but you didn't do 'Age' and I brought my grandmother here and that's her favorite song, I felt so hurt.' I said next time, please come, I'm going to do 'Age'".
"Age" is on the set list for his amphitheater appearance.
It's also mind-boggling to Stubbs that his music spans and is loved across generations. It's also something that excites, motivates, and inspires him.
"Young people will come to me and say 'I grow up on 'Bonefish Folley'. 'I grew up on 'Stress'. And they seem to genuinely love it and feeling it, so that gives me energy and motivates me to get on stage; that carries me," said Stubbs.
Ed Fields, Nassau Cruise Port consultant, business development, said after a summer of free concerts, they are "proud and privileged" to have Stubbs take to the amphitheater stage for what will essentially be his second live performance in 20 years, outside of an independence event earlier this year.
"Phil, for whatever reason, hadn't played for many years, and I'm glad that we can get him. I'm glad he gave us the opportunity to come onstage and to really give the Bahamian people a treat that they're really going to enjoy immensely," said Fields.
With Stubbs' songs about his experiences, Fields said Stubbs' experiences are every Bahamian's everyday experience.
"You sing a song like 'Stress' - he [Stubbs] could be singing it, but Monday ... stress, Tuesday ... stress - that's what we're experiencing every day," said Fields.
Stubbs said he tries to be relatable.
His most recent release "Papa's Whistle" on which Stubbs does an amazing job whistling, is a song about his own father and his memories of him growing up on Cat Island. He is telling a segment of his dad, Arthur's life story: "He was my papa, he loved to whistle and boy he was good. Out in the field or catching fish, you could hear papa whistling like this...and I did the whistling."
From Stubbs' body of work, it's almost difficult to imagine that the first song he attempted to write, "Bahamian Sunshine" has never been finished. He said it's just all over the place. That song may not be finished, but Stubbs kept at the writing for which Bahamians can be grateful. If he had not, we would not have beloved songs like "Bonefish Folley", "West End Move", "Oh Cat Island", "Stress", "Da Flu", "Gofa", "Sir Milo Butler" and most recently "Whistle Papa".
And he has been able to do what he has without anyone having showing him the ins and outs of songwriting and tips and techniques - chord progressions, melodies or lyrics.
"I didn't have anyone to show me how to write. I use the alphabet system - A, B, C, then I think about the public at large and I want to spoon feed them. At no time do I want to confuse them. So, I start from A, B, and C and down to Z."
Stubbs who plays the guitar, and in his own words, "a little bit" and who is self-taught, in his early days, performed as a one-man band in West End, Grand Bahama. His popular "West End Move" song was written from an experience he had while out at the nightclub one night.
"On my one night off from the casino, I was a dealer, and I was playing this little place and this female came in and she started dancing, I had never seen a dance like that, and then this guy came in – walked through the door with a [beer] bottle in his right hand and a cigarette in his left hand and when she looked around, he started to dance and she went at him and they went at each other – the rest is history. I've never seen two people dance like them ever - before or after - and so I said I gat to write about this, and that's how 'West End Move' was born. 'Way out west there lived this dame, she'll put any dancer oh to shame; if you want to want to watch her dance, watch her prance, get her in a circle and watch that lady dance. She's got a West End move'. Her name was Judy; the guy we called him Ole Joe, passed away last year. Ole Joe 'parked' her li'l bit that night. But like the old folks would say, it was good and good. But she recognized that Ole Joe tipped her and I have that in the song, 'West End Move'".
When he wrote "West End Move", Stubbs said he decided then and there that he would pen 100 songs. To date he says he has written about 170 songs and has recorded about 140 of them. And he continues to write. He has some inspirational stuff that he has not yet released.
"I went in the church and did the historic stuff the way it used to be. It's all about bridging the gap from the old to the young - about giving them perspective and identity - this is where you came from, versus now," said Stubbs.
But what really caused him to throw his hat into the songwriting ring in his younger years was a foreigner pointing out to him that the songs that were being performed such as "All Day All Night Marianne", "Islands in the Stream", "Jamaica Farewell", "Shame and Scandal In The Family" and "Yellow Bird" were not Bahamian songs.
"I sat there – I was so dejected. I said what do we have, and the thought hit me: you can't talk, you Bahamian why don't you try do something about it - and that's what I did."
With Stubbs set to electrify the Nassau Cruise Port amphitheater in a week's time, Fields said they are looking to bring more acts like Stubbs to the stage.
"This is a challenge that I sadly say is not easy. We have a shortage of product. There are songs that you think are Bahamian that aren't even Bahamian, so when you can get a Phil Stubbs...we're also talking to a couple of other greats, but when you're talking to a Phil Stubbs, all you can hope is he feels what we're feeling. I don't think there was a moment to be honest with you where we had to convince each other. I think Phil came down during independence and looked at the facility, and just by seeing the facility, and not did he just see the stage, he saw the whole port and how we were making an attempt to authenticate it as much as we could and I think that's what really hopefully sold him," said Fields.
Tickets for Phil Stubbs, Fanshawn and Ira Storr are on sale at bahamasetickets.com. Tickets are $50 general admission; VIP and Skybox tickets are also available. Doors open at 7 p.m.; showtime is at 9 p.m.
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