Being A Key West Artist
Island Time Radio up in Cleveland recently were kind enough
to interview me for the release of my new book, Bar Stories. Island Time has
always been a great supporter of both my music, as well as having both myself
and the “Key West Bar Tales – The Sum of All Beers” on for a beer segment on
their show. As a matter of fact, the podcast was an off shoot of the segment of
the Island Time Radio spot! The Beer Chat segment was on for almost a year before
we started the podcast, which was inspired by being on Island Time. It most
likely wouldn’t have ever happened without Island Tiles Beer Chat segment!
Thanks Island Time!
The book interview went great! Dennis King, a.k.a. DK, is a
fantastic guy and knows his way around the microphone like most know the back
of their hand. It’s always great to be interviewed by a pro!
Naturally, the conversation drifted to include my music,
which is my main focus. One of the things DK touched on was inquiring on what I’m
doing currently, as well as the future. In the thick of this portion of the
interview, DK made an observation which I actually took as a complement. He
said something to the effect of “Your music isn’t really Trop Rock so much”.
The question brought me back to when my album “Shanghai’d
And Marooned In Key West (things could be worse)” first came out. For starters,
Island Time was always a great supporter of the album! Thanks DK and his
sidekick, Amo Bennett! The late DJ Jeff Allen was also in love with it. I’d hear
it on his station (Beachfront Radio), plus, I’d get calls and messages from
friends that he was playing it left and right! Jeff often commented to me “You’re
doing things that no one else is doing in Trop Rock!”. That’s me alright. HA
HA! I never follow the crowd. Seldom do I drive the crowded highway. I’m the
one who prefers blazing a new trail in most anything I do.
Take my book, “Bar Tales” for example. I can’t find one
other book that is available on Amazon, out of something like 20,000,000 (Twenty
million) available books, which is about bar stories from the customer’s side
of the bar. This wasn’t my intent, but when I finished writing it I thought it
would be a good idea to see what others wrote on the same subject. Oh, there
were books on bars, how to run them, guides to bars in various cities, how to
mix drinks from a particular bar’s recipe, but nothing on stories about the
antics that go on with customers. I didn’t set out to do this, I only
discovered it after the book was completed! Apparently I blazed a new trail and
never knew it! HA HA!
With that as a backdrop, getting back to DK’s observation,
yeah, my music isn’t the same as all the others. The funny thing is, around 95%
or more Trop Rock artists, don’t live in the tropics. As a Key West artist, I
write about the daily goings on here, verses from the perspective of someone
visiting for three to seven days. I live
here. I pulled that trigger eight years ago and moved 138 miles from my home in
Cutler Bay, to Key West. Eight years down that road and I see things from a day
to day perspective, as opposed to that of a visitor or a tourist.
Additionally, I’m different from a musical structure point
of view. This stems from my major influences in my musical interests. Almost
all Trop Rock musicians’ number one influence is Jimmy Buffet. I love Jimmy
Buffett. He’s a great songwriter and I have the highest respect for him. For
myself, bands and artists such as The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead,
The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits, Antonio
Carlos Jobim, Santana, The Who, Martin Denny, the improvisation found in some
of the said groups, as well as jazz, all
play a very much larger influence in what I do. All of that mixed in with the
Tropical feel and lifestyle that Buffett brought to light, as well as living right
here in Key West, the source, is what my music is. It’s bound to sound
different. Story wise, it’s based on a local perspective. Locals and visitors
will get it, tourists wont. Additionally, an artist is someone who creates. All
artists have influences of course, but the artist creates, we don’t copy. DK’s
observation made my night! What he said was actually a great contradiction,
without being a contradiction at all, because although it was between the
lines, it point blank at the same time. DK stated my music is original! As an
artist, thank you DK!
What’s in The Hopper?
What’s in store for the future? Well, I had a bit of a
bombshell dropped on me around a month ago in that Dan Simpson, resident musician
and recording engineer for thirty five years here in Key West, is pulling up
stakes and moving to Ashville, N.C.! Dan
produced my album “Shanghai’d and Marooned in Key West (things could be worse)”,
to the extent that engineer and producer Shelley Liebowitz (Miles Davis, The Rolling
Stones, Ella Fitzgerald, Dr. John, … etc) wrote me from Los Angeles and said “Chris
I love your album!”. It was in the cards that he’d do the same on my next
project album “Jump Into de Fi-Ya!”. Regretfully apparently those cards had a
couple of Jokers in them and their name is Ashville, N.C.
There are some producers that will take artist’s songs, from
a demo they were sent. The demo may just be a very simple recording made with a
guitar and a vocal. The producer may make an arrangement of the songs, or get
someone else to do that part of it, then gather musicians together who record
them. The original artist then records the vocal track and essentially from
that point, they’re done, save for the mixing and mastering.
For myself, that would not work. I’m an artist who is
involved in virtually everything that’s done. I’m playing a guitar, collecting
musicians to play, suggesting to maybe a keyboard player what sound I’m looking
for. When the engineer is doing the mix I may say, “Let’s bring the rhythm guitar
up in this two-bar segment”. A lot of this is actually wearing the producer
hat. Point being, I’m a very hands on artist with what I want. Working with Dan
was always a pleasure! He always came up with great ideas on everything and as I
say, losing him is heartbreaking.
Having said that, Key West has a world class producer who
moved here a few years ago from London, England, Ian Shaw. Ian’s been in the
recording business for over thirty years and has many laurels and awards to his
credit in the United Kingdom. He still bounces back and forth between London
and Key West on various projects. We had lunch at Frenchie’s Café a week ago
and agreed to record a couple of songs I’ve written, “Yippie Cayo Hueso” and “Tote
The Load”. Something new and exciting!
Ian Shaw
Of course I have a bunch of other songs that need to be
recorded, however my budget at the moment restricts me to doing these two songs
to start with, then when there’s more funds accumulated, we can add more.
It goes without saying, if a good minded, philanthropic soul
would be interested in helping the project out, we’re interested! Thanks in
advance!!!!
HEY! LOOK BELOW!!!
Thanks for reading the blog! All The Best From Key West!
My book “Bar Stories” is available through Amazon! At this moment it has 12
five star ratings! Only $3.99!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Stories-Semi-Fictional-Adventure-Tour-Witnessed-ebook/dp/B01AHKCY1K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1457639261&sr=1-1&keywords=bar+stories
To obtain my music:
My CD is available on iTunes, CD Baby, CD Universe, Rhapsody, and Beachfront
Radio.
Search: Key West Chris
Thank you everyone!!
