Source reader Robin Eaton-Novak asks:
"I am ex-islander and have been homesick! I am seeking a CD with Christmas music from Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights and have come up empty-handed throughout the web! Help?!"
Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights are the quintessential St. Croix quelbe band, carrying on the Crucian take on this uniquely Caribbean music form for more than 40 years now. They play at the V.I. Agriculture Festival, V.I.-Puerto Rico Friendship celebrations, and cultural, charitable, and social events of all sorts throughout the year.
The storied band is an especially crucial part of the Crucian Christmas experience, especially when their Caribbean take on traditional carols like Jingle Bells, and their original carols like Guavaberry and Jimmy-John, glorifying local Crucian Christmas traditions, start hitting the radio.
The band has produced several CDs of Christmas music so far, including: Jimmy John and Don’t Stop the Serenade.
Every year, a day or so before Christmas, the band loads up into a rolling truck and sets out in the wee hours of the morning, long after midnight and long before dawn, for a "foreday" morning’s traditional Serenade.
They slowly drive the merry, brightly lit truck through the neighborhoods, filling the air with the bright, happy music of bandleader Stanley Jacobs’s flute laying Christmas melodies on top of rolling scratch band rhythms out into the streets.
People peep out their windows, stand on their balcony’s and porches, and watch the band go by, then go back to sleep. Others come out onto their lawns, dancing in the moonlight to the rhythm of Caribbean Christmas carols. Cars line up behind the band, snaking slowly across St. Croix, honking their horns to the band’s rhythm.
The procession stops at several houses along the route, playing an extended set, while the households fill plates with hot breakfast and cups with cold guavaberry rum. Cars pull to the side of the road; passengers hop out and join the folks coming out of the houses to dance in the street.
The band’s music is sold in many stores on St. Croix, but is not as easy to purchase online. The Source contacted Riddims Music, a Christiansted store emphasizing roots reggae and U.S. Virgin Islands musicians, and confirmed it carries Ten Sleepless Knights Christmas music. 
Riddims can be contacted through its website at www.riddimsmusic.com, or by calling (340) 719-1775. They do not sell directly from their website yet, but they will take an order over the phone or by email, and mail you the CD, according to the store official who answered the phone.
If you can’t wait for Riddims to process your order and your CD to arrive, you can listen to many Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights Christmas and traditional songs on YouTube right now. Just plug in a few key words like "Stanley Knights Christmas" and voilà!
