Over 28,000 Tune In To Hear The Shanty Hounds' Florida West Coast Visit To The Sandbox!!!!

                                  THE WHIPPET BIRTHDAY FLORIDA WEST COAST MINI TOUR

My much better half, Dani Hoy, and I took off for a mini tour of the west coast of Florida recently! As a duo we’re The Shanty Hounds!

We packed up the Dodge Van, dogs and musical instruments, then hit the road! Our first destination was The Sandbox on Anna Maria Island, just off of Bradenton, Florida. The total drive from Key West to Anna Maria Island was just about 400 miles (@650km), so it was an official adventure! Our second was at The Tropical Zone in Port Charlotte, about an hour and a half south. The Sandbox was on Saturday, while The Tropical Zone was Sunday. Both of these were house concerts.

We tried to do this just over a year ago. Right when we went through the toll on Alligator Alley we blew some water hoses and that left us in Ft. Lauderdale for the evening. But this time everything went smoothly!

This in fact was our dogs, Cajun and Tooloulou’s birthday weekend! Their seventh birthday was on the Monday after the two gigs we were off doing, so we named it “The Whippet Birthday Florida West Coast Mini Tour”. What else would we call it? ;-)

Dani had been to the Sandbox a couple of times, however for me it was a first… and long overdue, as we missed it last year!

What a place! Paul (Pablo) and Dianna, the owners and their able assistants Rick and Sheryl, do a fantastic job there, plus it’s all for the musicians. They don’t make a penny on it. They see the payback as having musicians from all over the country play in their back yard! We were the 62^nd musical act there and they started in 2012.

Talk about a set up! The Tiki Hut is made from a shed that Pablo’s father made years ago. He’s also picked up some old storm shutters from a very old building that was being torn down. Inside the Tiki is filled with all sorts of nick-knacks… pictures tell the story better.

The drive up there was worth seeing the Tiki Bar alone! HA HA!

We arrived at night and the following day was the concert. We woke up to a marvelous day and headed over to the beach to grab some breakfast. Great breakfast and what a setting as well!

The Tiki Man, Danny Lynn, and Sunshine Deb from Tiki Island Radio http://www.tikiislandradio.com/ were there to interview us that afternoon before the concert. The setting was great! In between the stage and the Tiki Hut was an area filled with foliage. They set up a table under a lemon tree and a mango tree, with assorted palms in abundance and that’s where the interviews were taking place. It was like being interviewed in a jungle! Fantastic!!!

Dani being interviewed by Danny

Danny Lynn had driven down all the way from Harrison Tennessee, just to hang out and do the interview! That’s a long way folks! According to Mapquest, that’s 623 miles!!! (1009 km!!!)

We were under the threat of rain for the concert, but it never came. Meanwhile I spoke with Danny Lynn and Sunshine Deb from Tiki Island radio. There was another station from Anna Maria Island (AMI Radio) that had wanted to broadcast our concert, but because of the threat of rain, understandably they decided to pass on it. As it turned out, Danny was pretty much all set up for it! So, he maintained his computer at his table off to stage right and set up a microphone directly in front of the stage. Next thing you know, Tiki Island Radio is broadcasting our entire gig! Holy Smokes!!! The bottom line is they had the Shanty Hounds on for close to seven hours!!!!! :-O

Get this: The average over the six hours of broadcasting was....

 28, 345!!!!!! 

That's average

That’s over 10,000 more than Madison Square Garden holds in New York City!!!! 

The bulk was of course here in the U.S. however they had listeners from all over the world, many of whom wrote in during the broadcast! London, Brazil, Australia, Japan…

Shanty Hounds are now an international act! HA HA HA!

Keep in mind this was an impromptu, off the cuff, last minute decision, seat of the pants broadcast. There was no promotion at all for this!

A major thanks to Danny Lynn and Sunshine Deb from Tiki Island Radio! Wow!

The gig itself went great as well! We had a fantastic turnout too! Fabulous folks and we’re very grateful to all who attended!!! Thank you very, very much!

And a MAJOR THANKS to Diana Greenfield Christ and Paul Heins, our FANTASTIC hosts at The Sandbox, who couldn't have been better! We laughed our way through the three days we were there! Thanks guys! Also, to Sheryl Styer Ozalynn and Rick Schittino, residents at The Sandbox who went so far out of their way to both help and accommodate us!

Keep an eye out for an upcoming "Bar Tending With Boris" episode we shot while we were there too! Coming soon! 

(photo by Harvey Myers)

More on the  Port Charlotte gig at The Tropical Zone in the next blog!

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keywestchris.com

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