Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gary, Bayang, Joy sing peace in Zambo

Multi-awarded musical artists Gary Granada and Bayang Barrios together with Zamboanga del Sur’s Fr. Joy Suson continued to stir hope among the people in Mindanao in their recent concert-lecture held in San Pablo and Aurora towns in Zamboanga del Sur, October 13 and 15 respectively.

The artists were the lead performers of the ecological and peace concert sponsored by the said Catholic parishes.

Gary Granada started off by defining what "peace" was all about. He said in Cebuano: "Ang peace o kalinaw usa ka konkretong konsepto. Sama kini sa fish o isda, makaon" referring to fish embroidered in the church clothing, which he said practically meant food.

"Ang fish, makaon. Kung walay pagkaon, walay kalinaw," (Fish is food. Without food, there is no peace) Gary asserted, pointing out that so much injustice breeds social conflicts such as rebellion and other criminal activities. To emphasize his point further, Gary sang one of his classics, “Bahay.”


On environment, Gary said, because of some people's drive for super profits, they destroyed the environment in the pretext of delivering development programs to the affected communities. His old song entitled "Dam" aptly explained the recent catastrophe that hit most of Northern Luzon involving the irresponsible release of dam waters to downstream communities at the height of storms Ondoy and Pepeng.

Bayang Barrios on the other hand, endeared the crowed when she sang the lullaby "Ugoy ng Duyan." Her grace in ethnic dance also added color to the new compositions she had on environment and peace which were mostly had ethnic instruments as accompaniment.

Pagadian Diocese Priest Fr. Joy Suson, currently serving San Pablo Parish in Zamboanga del Sur and who was also part of the cast, showed off his feats in song-writing and stage performing. Dubbed as Pagadian’s Singing Priest, Fr Suson’s original "Kultura" and "Paraiso" were attention-grabbing pieces especially for the audience who were not used to hearing "alternative" music.


>In one of his preliminaries, Fr. Suson was grateful to both Gary and Bayang for responding to their invitation positively to do concert in Pagadian Diocese despite the meager fee the organizers gave them.


Fr. Suson or “Joy” to his friends earned his AB-Philosophy from St. Columban College and Holy Infant Seminary in Pagadian City and his theologate from St. Mary’s Theologate in Ozamis City.

1 comment:

  1. bilib jud ko ana gary granada. maayo kaau mosulat kanata, lalom pa jud maghuna-huna.

    i also admire fr. joy for braving to write "different" songs.

    ReplyDelete