"Tales behind the songs"

Ok, ok…  I shall be posting the lyrics of my recorded songs and - as a bonus - give you some "tales behind the songs", how the songs came about, what inspired me to write a particular song, the "spirit" behind the song, etc. etc. - anything of human interest. I know that we get to appreciate and understand a piece of music better when we are given a deeper look into it, get to see the scenes behind the scene. Agree? Stay tuned then…

Well, what better way to start this than with one of the most loved, most popular Igorot love songs : LAYAD NAN LIKATAN.  This is also one of the most talked-about songs in the internet! 

Anyway, it was back in grade school when my dad bought a 45RPM vinyl record copy of this Bontoc love song. Listening to the raspy but melancholy voice of the late PEDRO CHINALPAN, I never dreamed that this same song would be instrumental in jump-starting my enduring musical love affair with Cordillera music. Looking for an Igorot song to spice up my very first recording (it was a condition given by my producer), I chose "Layad Nan Likatan" for lack of other choices. Now I wonder, was it providential? It was one of the best moves I ever did in my singing career. It became so identified with me and it became a major signature song notwithstanding the fact that I wasn't the first one to record it and neither did I write it. 

WELCOME!

WELCOME TO MY PERSONAL BLOG!!! Hey, don't get impatient. I'll be posting more and more as I get used to this. If you have anything to say, ask or confide - I'm listening. Email me, ok? But no very personal ones, huh?

Igorot Pride

"The past decades have unfolded before our countryside folk music lovers in the region an era marked with an unprecedented growth and development of Cordillera countryside songs and music. Within this period, we have seen the dramatic and spectacular shift in the fondness and passion for folk music - from the Western "cowboy songs", melodies and ditties to what is distinctly Cordilleran in melody, air and strain.

           It would not be amiss to aver the fact that among all the contemporary Cordillera music artists artists today, LOURDES has given the most of her God-given talents towards the propagation and wide acceptance of Igorot music even outside the Cordillera Region…"

DR. MARCELINO T. DELSON,  ExecutiveDirector, Cordillera Executive Board (1990)

My TRIBUTE to YOU

IYAMAN

Iyaman, o iyaman ko, ken dakayo ay gagayyem ko, tan gapu sin layad yo, na'y madnge nan nemnem ko.   

Idkasin insapatak, ken da amak ken inak  Ameyak ta man-adalak, pangala-ak sin diplomak

Ngem kaman ayos din danum, din gasat yan dumanon, baken tako sin mamanggen, si Apo Dios met laeng.