EVERARD LEON neither plays an instrument nor writes music. But a passionate love of melody and poetry has led to his composing many a song, including what some refer to as the local Christmas anthem "At Christmas Your Heart Goes Home", recorded in 1987 and still enjoying its fair share of airplay, annually.
Leon wrote this Christmas song with a singular voice in mind - that of balladeer Kelwyn Hutcheon. In the year 2000, Pat Bishop and the Lydians decided they would use the song for their annual Christmas Concert. "I was skeptical" says Leon "when you write music you are hearing what the person is singing. I never heard in my mind a choir while I was writing that song."
Nearly two years later, Leon still becomes very emotional as he relates his reaction to the Lydians and "At Christmas Your Heart Goes Home." "I was in awe, flabbergasted at what I was hearing and kept asking myself: did I really write that."
Last December, the Lydians took Leon's composition one step further and used it as the central theme for their Christmas presentation, which was named after the song. "The entire theme was based on At Christmas your heart goes home which was divided and used to four different beats ending with soca."
"I have had some memorable moments in my life like the time I represented Queen's Park at cricket, got 7 wickets for 21 runs against San Juan United, and received a standing ovation from my clubmates as I was asked to lead the team off the field. That fades into nothingness compared to my feelings when Pat invited me to sing my song with them at the last concert, on the altar of the Abbey Church at Mount St Benedict, which lends itself so much to the theme of Christmas. It is a moment I will cherish for as long as I live."
Leon, a tenor, admits to having sung in his youth with the St Mary's College Choir under Father Maiben, and on a couple of occasions on Sam Ghany and Frank Pardo's long-time Hi Neighbour radio programme. A Nat King Cole addict, he still has a copy of the original "Unforgettable" record. Just one week ago, he started guitar lessons.
So how did he publish five songs. "Melodies would always come into my head but because I could not write music would have to marry the lyrics and melody immediately. Take "Cloud Cover" a song I also wrote recently, it came to me on a flight into St Lucia where the pilot referred to some cloudiness."
Again he becomes emotional in speaking of his first ever published song, a single 45, "My lullaby to You, written when his second wife and himself lost their first baby. Leon is a father to six. Another song which is very dear to his heart is "Carelessly" (I let my true love slip away from me). Leon is a ballad writer for a single reasons that he is an incurable romantic.
At the end of the Lydians performances last December, Bishop autographed a picture of Leon and herself taken on the last night of the concert, with the words "Thank You for allowing us to sing your lovely song. Can we expect another one next year." This was enough to nudge Leon into finishing a song he had started a couple of years ago - "The Midnight Waltz."
"Two years ago I went to a house party and when I said to the D.J: I hope you have Auld Lang Syne to play at midnight, he asked me what was that, so I realised it was time for people to be reminded that a midnight waltz is a very important part of Old Year's Night. And this was how the song was born." Leon has now composed the final music specifically for the Lydian Singers. Since he is unable to write music, June Nathaniel has put it into sheet music. And he is definite that It is not going to be recorded unless it comes out of a recording of the Lydians 2002 Christmas Concert.
I was lucky to have Leon sing the first verse for me:
"Let us all dance the Midnight Waltz
Let's greet the New Year that way
Hold loved ones close as the old drifts away
Into a new dawning day
Whistles are blaring to three-quarter timing while promises are being made
Kisses and teardrops will mingle as corks pop
As I waltz through the Old Year with you."