ONSTAGE one Tuesday night at the Roadhouse in Manila Bay, the Champagne Blues trio was set to cover Willie Dixon’s “The Seventh Son.” Band leader Thomas “Tomcat” Colvin came in on harmonica as guitarist Rvin Austria slipped in a cascade of melodic chords, while bassist and lead vocalist Erwin Cuenca started a cluster of riffs before the latter belted out the first lines of the song.
In full collaboration, the trio launched another stirring performance.
Colvin would later on remark that he got hooked on the blues at 10 years old, thanks to his older brother’s record collection. He would also talk about the discovery of a note that does not exist in the harmonica.
An easy-going manner masks the fact that he has made significant contributions in his other lifelong passions as an “expatriot” in the Philippines.
Today, American expat Colvin is often referred to as the big man behind the scenes in the most recent blues renaissance in the country. He did time with the seminal blues band Lampano Alley and was instrumental in organizing the Philippine Blues Society, which in turn led to the country’s participation in the annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. (Other Pinoy bands who left their indelible mark on the global blues stage are the Bleu Rascals and Electric Sala.)
In another lifetime before plunging headfirst into blues music, Colvin was a teacher who moved to administration doing public-relations work. He eventually became an audiovisual producer who created affordable presentations for educational institutions and nonprofit organizations, at a time when video-production costs were way too expensive.
In an informal conversation, Colvin said that a chance remark with a client staff piqued his interest to come to Manila.
He related, “Back in 1978 I was doing a series of slideshows for the Usaid [United States Agency for International Development] when I told a staff I’d like to work overseas. My ‘Aid’ contact advised, ‘there is really one place to work overseas: in the Philippines. You’d be received with open arms. People [there] like America, there’s a fair amount of English-speaking Filipinos and their culture is familiar. It’s absolutely the best place to work overseas.’”
The Usaid staff further added that the best place to work in the Philippines was in the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Colvin applied for a job there a year later and visited the country twice to check it out. He finally got employed in the agency’s Information Office in 1986, and then secured a long-term employment contract three years later.
‘Industrial-strength blues’
IT was only after he proved himself inside the ADB that Colvin pursued his passion for the blues.
He recalled, “I started jamming with local bands, especially with Stephen Lu at Weekends Live in the Atrium Building. The American bar owner eventually asked if I could form a true blues band. Lu, who happened to be Binky Lampano’s former manager in Dean’s December, put [me and Lampano] together in 1991.”
“One night, at the home of keyboardist Butch Saulog, I jammed with [Lampano] and by the end of the first song, it was clear we had to put up a band together. Thus was born the Newly Industrialized Combo [NIC], specializing in ‘industrial-strength blues.’ That band, and my friendship with [Lampano], became a major turning point in my life.”
NIC went into hiatus when Lampano left for the United States. After a few years there living with his parents, he returned to Manila and formed Lampano Alley.
Colvin’s life took a crucial turn. “I joined Lampano Alley, and within a few months, I decided to take an early retirement from the ADB to devote [myself] full-time to the band. People thought I was nuts, but it was the best decision I ever made in my life.”
With his retirement, the American lost his special visa privilege that allowed ADB employees to live full time in the Philippines. He became a “tourist” who was required to leave the country after a six-month stay. It led to a decision to spend half of the year in the Philippines and the other half in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he was able to secure “his dream apartment” nestled on the side of a mountain, overlooking a valley and with a panoramic view.
Immersed in PHL
THAT time, the Philippines introduced the Special Retirement Visa for seniors, but it required a large investment that he could not afford. On the other hand, Mexico had much more favorable policies for long-term residency for foreigners.
He disclosed, “I began the long process of obtaining full-time Mexican residency [something similar to a green card]. But in 2010 the Philippine government made special provisions for former ADB employees to entice them to stay in the country through which I was finally able to obtain a long-term visa. This was another turning point in my life.”
Another came up when a major juncture in Philippine history loomed in the horizon. Sometime between 1995 and 1996, he got into thinking how and where he could contribute to the upcoming centennial celebration of the Philippine independence. At that time, he was a member of the Camera Club of the Philippines.
Colvin said, “I really have two other main interests: one is history, and the other is sculpture. And I started wondering if anybody has documented the historical monuments in the country.”
“So I went to my friend, the famous art historian Manny Duldulao of the Camera Club, and presented my project idea for the centennial. He told me nobody has done that, and I came home with a new project in hand.”
‘Monumental quest’
COLVIN would sum up his life’s journey thus far: “[It] has been a series of significant projects. I have become married to [them]. And then, I had a bona fide [one] besides music.”
After discovering the King Carlos IV memorial in front of the Manila Cathedral, he embarked on a continuing project to document historical monuments all over the Philippines, which he initially intended to be his contribution to the centennial celebration of the country’s independence. Once or twice a month, for more than several years, he traveled on weekends to various parts of the country in search of monuments.
He shared, “It was a great adventure, and I learned so much about Philippine history. I met so many fine people along the way, including my friend and longtime driver Robly Cruz, who was such a great guide throughout the ‘monumental’ quest.”
In his studies of the country’s past, one thing always led to another. From documenting monuments, Colvin went on to research about three interrelated topics that paved the way to some truly significant discoveries.
Balmis Expedition expert
HE became the world’s authority on the Pacific leg of the famous Balmis Expedition of 1803 to 1805, which successfully carried the newly discovered smallpox vaccine throughout the Spanish Empire, including the Philippines.
The American expat also published articles and gave lectures in Asia, Europe, Mexico and the United States about the unique events surrounding the expedition.
Colvin’s study of the Expedition also uncovered a little-known event in Philippine history: the British naval incursions from 1805 to 1807. He elaborated, “Most notable was my discovery of the Battle of Ticao Island between Spanish and British warships in 1805. That historic event even surprised the top historian of the British Royal Navy when I presented a lecture at the International Maritime Historical Conference in Greenwich, England.”
“After my presentation,” he described, “the eminent historian asked me how I managed to discover something about the British Royal Navy that he had never heard of. I replied that I looked into archives [where] he would have never thought researching in: the Filipinas section of the Spanish National Archives in Seville, Spain.”
The Balmis investigation also led to his discovery of the research mission to the Philippines by British botanist and King’s Gardener William Kerr in 1805. To learn more, he visited the Library at the British Museum of Natural History.
It turned out that the head librarian had never heard of the botanist Kerr. Colvin told the librarian that there should be a report about this mission in his library.
“I explained to him that at the time, the mission had been endorsed by the King of England and Sir Joseph Banks, the preeminent scientist of the era. The librarian said he had never heard of the mission, nor the botanist Kerr, but he agreed to check the library’s archives.”
“Twenty minutes later,” Colvin related, “he returned with a 105-page handwritten day-by-day journal of the William Kerr botanical mission to Luconia in 1805. He told me that according to their records, I was the very first person [who asked] to see that particular journal.”
Currently, Colvin is negotiating with the museum to secure rights to publish the journal here in the Philippines.
His three historical research projects are expected to turn out to be truly historically significant, though largely unmentioned in major books on Philippine history. The Lopez Museum and Library has thrown its wholehearted support to the many years of his research.
He has also forged a special bond with the Lopez library staff, and all of his research papers, as well as published articles, are available to the public at the library’s especially created shelf for “The Colvin Collection.”
‘Deeply rooted’
THE last song in the Champagne Blues’s first set that Tuesday was an original composition, entitled “Land of The Free,” where Colvin half-sings, half mumbles: “Big Brother watching over you,” and “These rules, these regulations creep over you…”
Referring sideways to these lyrics, he explained, “I actually first formed an interest in emigrating to another country back around 1970, when I witnessed the very strong conservative backlash to the liberalism of the 1960s. I am still a child of [that decade].”
The bluesman-historian went on: “I am essentially a ‘libertarian,’ with conservative economic views and liberal social views. I also became aware during that time of the seething anger under the surface in many areas of the US.”
Now 79 years old, Colvin is deeply rooted in the Philippines—Manila, in particular—which has been his real home for about half of his adult life, 32 years to be exact, after he arrived in 1986. He is also fully at peace with the hang-ups of his youth and about life in his motherland.
Colvin gives foremost credit to the support network he has established over the years: “I simply love the Filipino people. In my view, [they are] the most remarkable people on Earth: warm, friendly and always helpful; incredibly resilient in the face of tragic circumstances—a kind of strength hard to find in the spoiled, pampered Western world.”
He professed: “As an elderly guy with special needs, I have social support here that would be nearly impossible to match in the US, or even in Mexico.”
Above all else, the expat enjoys his current state in life due to his adopted Filipino family and driver-assistant. For an elderly like Colvin, they make every passing day a true delight. These “fine, talented, well-organized [and] positive Filipinos” who are closest to him are the real reasons he had chosen to stay in the Philippines.
Colvin concluded, “I think my experiences and stories demonstrate why I am the luckiest person on the planet. I have been given so many opportunities to explore my twin passions for music and history in the Philippines. There is no way that my experiences here could be duplicated in the US, and the friendships I have made are simply irreplaceable.”
Image credits: Jimbo Albano, Mon Malana