Calypso Rose is cancer free and still full of fire.

A year ago McCartha Lewis spent several months in two hospitals in New York and Los Angeles battling breast cancer. She had undergone surgery in October 1996 and was so depressed afterward she had to seek solace in support groups.

But now the woman who is named for one of the United States' most decorated World War II generals, General Douglas MacArthur, is booked to perform throughout the United States and Europe for the rest of the year. Trinidad Carnival is just one stop on her packed itinerary.

"I am ready, I am back and hot like fire. And the only thing I want is the road. Gimme the road, because when I move I go be kicking fire, so gimme the road. When ah passing is only thunder rollin' so gimme de road, man," she extempored while being interviewed at the Normandie Hotel.

With a head-tilting laugh and a smile as broad as the Savannah stage, the Calypso Queen of the World said she was happy to be back home and performing. Her accent may be a heavy mix of the Yankee twang and the pronounced Tobago dialect, but there is still the boisterous, uninhibited rose who once kicked and pranced across the Queen's park Savannah to walk away with the Calypso Monarch crown and the Road March, the only woman to hold onto both titles.

"People here think I am not performing any more because they heard about my cancer and they do not see me in Trinidad often. But I am still giving them fire," she announced in between greeting passersby who hailed out to her as though they were old friends.

Rose smiled back, waved and turned to say: "Dis country sweet eh?"

She is one of the headline performers at De Fresh Water Yankees Calypso Tent, which opened this week at the NUFGW on Henry Street. The undisputed calypso queen shares the stage there with other calypso greats of the seventies and eighties.

Rose will leave Trinidad on February 14 to perform in Chicago and on the Royal Caribbean Winter Cruise.

She will return February 22 for the tail end of Carnival after which she will spend another three weeks, until mid-March, with her family in Tobago.

Rose, who admitted to suffering from the occasional home-sickness, said she craves the bacchanal of the Carnival season, the drama of calypso controversies and the energy of the steelband yards and mas camps.

"That is what I really miss. You should see me calling meh family every night asking them what going on down here and what the people saying. I like a Carnival jumbie," she laughed.

Rose rattled off a litany of appearances and bookings for the rest of the year from New York and Toronto to St Thomas and London. One of her regular gigs is at the Detroit Carnival. She will also perform with Sparrow, Roaring Lion, Duke and Terror on April 2, at London's Royal Albert Hall in a concert put on by Eddie Grant and Ice Records.

To hear her tell it she is quite happy to be travelling around the world living out of suitcases and sleeping on planes.

"Yes I miss home but travelling is real excitement. You must tune your body…I take care of mine," she boasted, her brown skin glowing.

"I does eat good too you know, even thought he doctor has put me on cucumber, watercress, cabbage and broccoli to fight the cancer.

"But I from Tobago and I am no stranger to that kind of food and I only eat fish so no cancer ain't ketching me again. I have too much singing to do."

When she is not traipsing from country to country, belting out the tunes which made her calypso queen, she likes to rent a boat at Sheepshead Bay in New York and go fishing.

"I rent a boat for $25 and take it out to catch blue fish. I have a trophy in my house for catching the largest blue fish one time."

One of her latest releases is a twelve-track CD entitled Tobago, a tribute to her home. It was produced by Eddie Grant but all the songs were written by Rose.

The compilation includes old favourites such as "Fire in Meh Wire" as well as new tracks, "I want it hotter."

She even has a new tune especially for the women with the catchy chorus:

"Me no want, me no want, me no want no married man."

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