Charlie Halloran & The Tropicales kick off Putamayo's new Island Hopping 10-track compilation in style with "Gabe's Archipelago" – check it out!
Here's the scoop from Charlie...
"Island Hopping comes out today (Friday, October 23) from Putumayo! Our song 'Gabe’s Archipelago' kicks the record off on track one!
"It's an instrumental calypso, in the style of Johnny Gomez or Fitz Vaughan Bryan, and hopefully makes your kitchen feel like the Hotel Normandie in 1957 Port of Spain…. Or the Tijuana Club in 1957 New Orleans. They’re really not that different.
"In the meantime, cheers from Tampico and see ya soon!"
Listen to "Gabe's Achipelago," which originally appeared on Charlie Halloran & The Tropicales' album New Orleans '26.
Various Artists – Island Hopping
Putamayo's new Island Hopping 10-track collection is a joyful musical voyage celebrating the rhythms and spirit of tropical island life from Cuba to Cabo Verde, Haiti to Hawai’i and beyond!
Circumnavigating the globe from the Pacific to the Atlantic with stops in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the album features upbeat Polynesian reggae, retro Trinidad-style calypso, danceable Cabo Verdean coladeira, soulful Cuban and Puerto Rican salsa, the infectious sega of Mauritius, and more.
Despite the diverse cultural influences they represent, these celebratory songs fit together naturally on this collection, revealing that the sea that separates these islands has also connected them across time and distance.
Island Hopping is the latest release in the Putumayo Discovery series, which seeks to highlight underrepresented musical talents from across the globe. Every month, Putumayo Discovery releases two 10-song digital albums featuring exceptional songs by artists representing diverse world cultures and traditions.
Get a copy of Putamayo's 10-track Island Hopping compilation from your platform of choice right here.
Also, if you're interested in hearing more from the fab New Orleans crew Charlie Halloran & The Tropicales, check out their Bandcamp page right here.
How celebrated screen villain Vincent Price wound up doing Hilarious House of Frightenstein in Hamilton isn't really a mystery.
By the end of the 60s, Vincent Price found his phone ringing less frequently with big screen offers. The calls for the veteran actor to play the lead villain – even for no-budget drive-in chillers – had all but dried up for the St. Louis-born thespian with his 60th birthday looming.
Of course, the residual effect of his FBI "grey-list" designation (being vocally anti-Hitler prior to the U.S. involvement in WWII meant that you could be considered a potential Communist sympathizer during the Red Scare days of the McCarthy era) was that major Hollywood studios were reluctant to hire Price after the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings 1947-1951. The dates are significant. That's when we see Price's focus shifting from film to television with Fireside Theatre ('51), Lights Out ('52), Chesterfield Presents ('52), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse ('52), Gruen Guild Playhouse ('52), Robert Montgomery Presents ('52), Summer Theatre ('53), ABC Album ('53), Phillip Morris Playhouse ('53), etc.
It's in 1953 that Price launches his career in horror films with his appearance in Warner's commercially successful but critically panned 3-D experiment "House Of Wax" and continues in 1954 with "The Mad Magician" for Columbia Pictures, 20th Century-Fox's "The Fly" ('58), and then in 1959, Price enters the world of independent chillers with William Castle's "House On Haunted Hill" ('59) and "The Tingler" ('59) and Roger Corman's "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" ('60). In between shoots, Price continued doing television like Lux Video Theatre, Climax!, Playhouse 90, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Matinee Theatre, etc. but his roles had a consistently creepier vibe. He was now effectively typecast as a horror heavy and his frequent small screen appearances made him even less appealing to directors casting big screen pictures unless it was a chiller-thriller.
At the time, the idea of serious actors doing series television was still considered taboo by many in the film business – an open admission that you were past your sell-by date in Hollywood. It didn't appear to be any concern to Vincent. He was grateful for the work and seemed to delight in applying his skills to unexpected situations for whatever job offer – comedy or drama – came his way.
For all his macabre on-screen menace, Price had a highly evolved sense of humour and never took himself too seriously. Whether it was spoofing his charming psychopath persona for laughs on the comedy/variety shows of Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Stewart, Red Skelton and Lucille Ball or popping up in guest spots on F-Troop, Daniel Boone, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Man From Uncle, Mod Squad, Love American Style and famously as the clever "Egghead" matching wits with the caped crusader on Batman. He was down for whatever.
So when Hamilton, Ontario's CHCH-TV came looking for someone to recite a few lines of creepy poetry and help set the proper tone for a kooky kids show called The Hilarious House of Frighenstein, Vincent Price knew he was right man for the job. He'd made a career out of finding the perfect balance between horror and humour. And being a lifelong Edgar Alan Poe devotee, the opportunity to bring to life the mystery and menace inherent in Poe's timeless verse like "The Raven" for a youthful audience in Canada was too perfect for Price to pass up.
Of course, he nailed the shows intro and outro sequences as well as the segment links with a mischievous grin as only Price could. According to those present, Price was the consummate team player, ready and willing to do whatever was required for the shot. He shared some stories and fellow actors and had some laughs with CHCH-TV's impressive crew and happily posed for photos with anyone who wanted a memento.
As the shoot was wrapping, there came news of an imminent snow storm. In a flash, Price vanished leaving everyone to think he'd raced to the airport to get catch the first flight home. Instead, our man returned an hour later carrying a two-four from the nearby Brewer's Retail and proceeded to hand out stubbies to get the party started in proper Canuck fashion.
What many people didn't know at the time was that Price had a long history with Canadians, particularly those from Southern Ontario. As a child, the St. Louis, Missouri-born aspiring thespian had spent his summers in the Windsor-Essex town of Amerhurstburg, Ontario where his maternal grandmother owned a two-story house on the banks of the Detroit River. And part of the reason for taking the job in Hamilton was that it provided a rare chance to return the site of his beloved VinMar Lodge, the place of some of his most-cherished childhood memories.
Perhaps Vincent's daughter Victoria Price will be able to shed some light the personal side of Vincent's life at tonight's screening of the documentary Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. She'll be in attendance for the post-screening Q&A. Find out more about the film on The Perlich Post right here.
Watch a short documentary about Hilarious House of Frightenstein followed by a discussion of the Price family's time in Amerhurstburg below.
