The two women co-authored two songs on the album: the title track, I?m not doing well getting over you, and Let me down easy, numbers 5 and 9 on the CD.

The song that I think is most impacting on the album is ?Longing.? In the most compelling tone and style, Mali sings the ballad as if she were actually experiencing it?and perhaps she has drawn on her own personal experience to write the lyrics. In the song, she speaks of her intense longing for her blue-eyed lover, from whom she is separated. You can hear the yearning is her voice as she sings.

Love is the central theme of Mali?s new album, but perhaps it is her sense of longing for that special one that overrides all the emotions she plays out on her album. She titles her self-created design and artwork for her CD ?Longing in my heart,? and the shattered heart on the back cover of the CD demonstrates a pain she apparently carries in her heart. The album speaks heavily of the down side of love?the toughest part of love to get through.

Mali?s 10-track compilation takes off with a short but sweet song dubbed ?Breaking Down.? The song speaks of a woman who appears strong on the outside, but only because she hides her weakness from the world. At the outset of her album, this first track breaks the ice with her listeners as it unmasks one of the most common facades and exposes what?s really real. Mali strips herself of all pretenses before she takes listeners to another level, where she speaks of her ?Lonely World.?

?And you remain with her through her love trials, her triumphs and disappointments, and her memories of happy, sad, or glad times. Mali is at once piercing and tender, soulful and folksy, insightful and na?ve, happy and mournful. In ?Waiting,? and ?Breaking Down,? one wades with Mali through the split tears of young, unrequited love, misdirected love, love gone bad or sad, and the repercussions of falling in love,? Billie Jean previewed.

On the album, she has included three songs written in German. The songs on the album were written between 2001 and 2003, and the finished product was released in March in Germany.

In her recent visit to Belize, Ingrid Cayetano, Mali?s German mother, told us that so far, people have reacted well to the album. Mali decided to start off with 1,000 CD?s, and they are selling well, her mother said.

She recalled that when Mali was merely 16 years old, her interest peaked in music. At the age of 10, she got her first flute and two years later she started to write songs. Since then, she has also had singing and guitar lessons.

Mali comes from a family of musicians. Her father, Pen Cayetano, a Belizean, is hailed as the creator of Punta Rock music. It was Pen who taught her how to play the keyboard, her mother said.

In 2000, Pen and Ingrid, along with their daughter, Mali, and sons Ibo and Beni, formed the band known as the Cayetanos.

Mali writes both in German and English, but mostly in English. Her mother explained that, according to Mali, the atmosphere of the songs are better in English; the words are the most important to her, and the feeling or atmosphere of the song has to touch the listener?no matter what the language.

She pursues music daily in her spare time, and the family band, the Cayetanos, rehearses very often, Ingrid said.

In addition to pursuing her music passionately, Mali also studies design for communication at the School for Applied Science in Ahrweiler, Germany.

?She [Mali] was always playing by herself with the guitar,? Ingrid added. ?First she writes the words and then she composes the music.?

Mali?s latest production drew on the expertise of her family band. Also featured on the album are her brother Beni on bass and acoustic guitar; her brother Ibo on drums and percussions; her mother, Ingrid, on percussion and background vocals; and her father, Pen, on guitar, bass, drums, congas, and background vocals. The album also features two other musicians: Bruno Bertram on lead guitar and Tommy Geller on piano. Mali is the lead vocalist, but also played on the piano and guitar for the project.

I?m not doing well getting over you is a production of Turtle Shell Music. Pen Cayetano, the label?s innovator, was one of six people who formed the original Turtle Shell Band, which rose to legendary heights in Belize in the 1980s.

Ingrid was born in Belize in 1984 at the old Dangriga Hospital. She was 5 years old when her parents moved to Ahrweiler, Germany, where they are currently based.