Mr. Talbot lent his voice to the Talbots distinctive blended harmonies and cut a striking figure onstage with his homemade bass. Called the doghouse or the Bermudavarius, it was fashioned from a Swift meatpacking crate and had a single string made from fishing line. As the Talbot Brothers toured the world, fans would sign the instrument, among them Babe Ruth, Bing Crosby and Tommy Dorsey.
In their heyday, the late 1940s and 50s, the Talbot Brothers were a major attraction at Bermudas hotels and clubs and at the private homes of wealthy Americans who were discovering the island. Their popularity is often credited with playing an important role in putting Bermuda on the tourist map. Songs like Bermuda Buggy Ride and Bermudas Still Paradise, with their smooth harmonies and easy, swinging beat, helped establish the islands image as a carefree, no-worries leisure destination.
Roy Talbot was born in Tuckers Town, Bermuda, one of 10 siblings. His father cut coral stone in a quarry, and his mother played organ in the local Methodist church. When Roy, his brothers Archie and Austin and their cousin Ernest Stovell decided to form a singing group, Roys mother instructed them in the intricacies of four-part vocal harmony while playing piano accompaniment. The group gained local fame performing at weddings and clubs.
In the 30s, as part of a government effort to promote Bermudas tourism industry, the Talbots and other families were relocated so that Tuckers Town could be developed as an enclave for the rich. Today H. Ross Perot, the Texas businessman, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York own vacation homes there.
In the early 40s, as the new sounds of calypso drifted over from Trinidad, Roy, Archie and Austin joined with their brothers Bryan and Ross and their cousin Cromwell Mandres to form the Talbot Brothers of Bermuda, a calypso group with a difference.
Unlike Trinidadian calypso groups, the Talbot Brothers did not use percussion, except for an occasional conga drum, and their instrumentation was unusual: a blend of acoustic and electric guitars, harmonicas, a 10-string ukulele called a tiple, an accordion and Roys booming bass. The group performed in floral shirts and straw hats.
Bermuda Buggy Ride, a swing ballad recorded in the United States, made the Talbot Brothers the musical act that tourists to Bermuda wanted to see. In addition to original songs like Razor Razor and the nuclear-bomb ballad Atomic Nightmare (Im going to run, run, run like a son of a gun), the group recorded popular cover versions of the calypso classic Yellow Bird and the infectious Is She Is, or Is She Aint?, which was originally recorded by Louis Eugene Walcott, professionally known as the Charmer, who later achieved fame as Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader.
