Before I ever moved to Key West, I was a fan of Gweko's (A.K.A. Gary Ek), music video he made for James Slater's song, “Key West Address”. I thought it captured the entire feel of the town perfectly. It was made during the Key West Songwriter's Festival and had several visiting songwriter artists acting in it.
My first year in Key West, I attended an event at The Bottle Cap during the Key West Songwriter's Fest (KWSF) called “The Late Night Hang”. The Late Night Hang started at midnight and was actually after all of the events had ended.
It should be noted for those not familiar with the KWSF, it is the largest songwriters event in the United States.... excuse me, The World! From Key West's location, it's put on by Charlie Bauer and Danielle Holiday. Additionally, it's also put on by BMI Nashville, working in conjunction with Charlie and Danielle. With BMI Nashville being involved, you can imagine how many Nashville songwriters are taking part.
At The Late Night Hang was a place where everyone from Nashville would gather and let their hair down at the end of the day. In addition to artists, there were producers, record companies, managers, you name it, they were there.
Interestingly enough, it was actually an ASCAP event. ASCAP is essentially BMI's competitor. The Bottlecap was always mobbed. Inside, they ran it like an open-mic. They had a house trio to back up anyone who they called. Meanwhile, outside the terrace was bumper-to-bumper, and the parking area was flowing out into the streets with people.
So, I'm there hanging out and all of the sudden I saw a somewhat familiar face. I had to approach her.
“Hey! You're one of the girls in that video Gary Ek made for James Slater, Key West Address!” I said.
In a strong Gomer Pyle style southern accent she replied “I am! My name is Misty Loggins, what's yours?”. As it turned out, although she was a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, she grew up in northwest Georgia.
From that moment on, we became great friends! Every year when she would be back we'd make sure we got together. Last year she stayed with us. When I first was invited to play in the KWSF, we were paired on the same stage. We have a really fun chemistry together, with leg pulling and fun banter. The organizers picked up on that and have paired us every year subsequently.
The Key West Songwriters Festival 2017, will be from May 10th to May 14th,,,, Make arrangements to be here for this! It the best musical event all year in Key West
So, with that as the back drop, a few years ago I get this call from her saying that she's coming down to play a week at the Smokin Tuna Saloon, here in Key West. I say “Fantastic!”. Then, almost with a knee jerk reaction I say “Hey, when you're down, lets cut a song together!” Her response was “That would be wonderful! Lets do it!” Done deal and she would be here in two weeks!
This would be fantastic! It was great for her too, because singing one of my songs would give her exposure to an entirely new audience!
After I got off the phone I started thinking. “Humm...er.... uh, I don't have a song for her to sing”
Hello!
So, I had two weeks to come up with a song for her to sing. My first week was just running into a brick wall. Nothing was working. Everything was forced and it just wasn't happening.
The first part of the second week... D Day, if you will, I woke up, went down stairs picked up my guitar and hit two simple chords, an E and a B7. “THIS IS IT!” No question about it.
I played with the two chords and it just took off from there. Before I knew it I had a full progression for the verses with seven more chords, a total of nine. This time it had a specific theme style and a direction musically. I now had it in the cross hairs and I was taking no prisoners. Next up, I put the bridge for the song together, which included five additional new chords. The song now had fourteen chords. I had a name for the song, “Island Blue”, and I could hear it in the song when I played it, though at this point that's all there was to it.
Although not based, or rooted off anything musically, the song had a Patsy Cline style to it. Something in the structural feel vane of I Fall To Pieces, Crazy, or, She's Got You. If Patsy Cline Country style music was a genre unto itself, Island Blue was within it's borders.
That's what I heard when I hit those two chords earlier, E and B7. The song would be rooted in Country Blues. What ever happened to Country Blues anyway?
Next would be the lyric story line within the structure of the music. As I mentioned, I already heard the line “Island Blue”in my head. The rest of he story came pretty quickly. Although structurally a Country style Blues, the story line wouldn't be a sad story. This would be the story of joy. The story of someone who goes on vacation to a tropical island, from some non-specific place on the mainland. Maybe it was Atlanta? Perhaps Boston? Chicago? Or maybe a small town, such as Ridgewood, New Jersey, or maybe Misty's home town, Hollywood, Georgia.
This would not be specific. It didn't need to be. Only that the protagonist, in this case represented by Misty Loggins, would have traveled to a tropical island, be it St. Thomas, St. John, St. Barts, Jos Van Dyke, Barbados, Key West, Martinique, Islamorada, what have you, and after being there for a few days, decided this was where she wanted to live and makes up her mind to do so.
The song was done before noon. I was in Private Ear studio with Dan Simpson on bass, and the great Richard Crooks on drums by the end of the week.
Misty came in and laid her track down. The key of E wasn't working for her, on this particular morning, so at her suggestion, we changed the key to F. It's been that was ever since. Misty nailed it too!
Later, we brought in Ericson Holt on piano and organ, plus, we added Gary Carter up in Nashville, on pedal steel. Later, my girlfriend Dani Hoy was added on background vocals. Dan Simpson did all the engineering, recording, and mixing.
The song is the first song to be available from my upcoming album “Jump Into de FiYa!!!”
On an interesting side note, this is the only song that I've written for a specific person to sing, other than myself.
It's available on Amazon for less than a dollar:
ISLAND BLUE
(intro) F F7 Bb Db9 C9 F Cdim
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C7
ISLAND BLUE YOU’RE GONNA TAKE ME BACK THROUGH THE WINDS OF TIME
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F Caug
OH ISLAND BLUE YOU’RE GONNA CHANGE THIS HEART OF MINE
2
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C 7
I CAME TO THIS ISLAND FOR SUNSHINE AND MARITIME AIR
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F
OH ISLAND BLUE YOUR SANDY BEACHES IT SEEMS SO UNFAIR
Bb Maj7 F Maj7
WHEN I CAME TO YOU I HAD NO WORRIES IN THE WORLD
Bb Maj7 F Maj7 F7
I WAS AS FREE AS A SEAGUL IN FLIGHT
BbMaj7 F F7
I STAYED A FEW DAYS I COULD FEEL IT
Gm7 Am7 Dm7 Dbm7 Cm7 Bb Maj7 Gm7
BENEITH MY FEET MY WHOLE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND I KNEW DEEP DOWN INSIDE
C7 F Db9 C9 F Caug
THIS WAS MY LIFE
3
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C7
OH ISLAND BLUE NO I’M NOT CRYIN’ HAVE NO MISERY, NO PAIN
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F
OH ISLAND BLUE IT JUST ISN’T FAIR TO FEEL THIS WAY (laugh)
BbMaj7 EFMaj7
WHEN I CAME TO YOU I HAD NO WORRIES IN THE WORLD
BbMaj7 FMaj7 F7
I WAS AS FREE AS A SEAGUL IN FLIGHT
BbMaj7 F F7
I STAYED A FEW DAYS I COULD FEEL IT
Gm7 Am7 Dm7 Dbm7 Cm7 Bb Maj7 Gm7
BENEITH MY FEET MY WHOLE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND I KNEW DEEP DOWN INSIDE
C7 F Db9 C9 F Cdim
THIS WAS MY LIFE
4
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C7
SO I SAID GOOD-BY TO THE CITY AU REVOIR TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F F7
AND HELLO TO THE TROPICS ISLAND BLUE
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F Caug F7
AND HELLO TO TO THE TROPICS ISLAND BLUE
© 12/5/2011 Christopher R. Rehm BMI
Island Blue
Drums: Richard Crooks, Bass: Dan Simpson, Vocals: Misty Loggins, Keyboards: Ericson Holt, Guitar: Chris Rehm, Pedal Steel: Gary Carter B/G Vocals: Dani Hoy
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F Caug
OH ISLAND BLUE YOU’RE GONNA CHANGE THIS HEART OF MINE
2
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C 7
I CAME TO THIS ISLAND FOR SUNSHINE AND MARITIME AIR
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F
OH ISLAND BLUE YOUR SANDY BEACHES IT SEEMS SO UNFAIR
Bb Maj7 F Maj7
WHEN I CAME TO YOU I HAD NO WORRIES IN THE WORLD
Bb Maj7 F Maj7 F7
I WAS AS FREE AS A SEAGUL IN FLIGHT
BbMaj7 F F7
I STAYED A FEW DAYS I COULD FEEL IT
Gm7 Am7 Dm7 Dbm7 Cm7 Bb Maj7 Gm7
BENEITH MY FEET MY WHOLE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND I KNEW DEEP DOWN INSIDE
C7 F Db9 C9 F Caug
THIS WAS MY LIFE
3
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C7
OH ISLAND BLUE NO I’M NOT CRYIN’ HAVE NO MISERY, NO PAIN
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F
OH ISLAND BLUE IT JUST ISN’T FAIR TO FEEL THIS WAY (laugh)
BbMaj7 EFMaj7
WHEN I CAME TO YOU I HAD NO WORRIES IN THE WORLD
BbMaj7 FMaj7 F7
I WAS AS FREE AS A SEAGUL IN FLIGHT
BbMaj7 F F7
I STAYED A FEW DAYS I COULD FEEL IT
Gm7 Am7 Dm7 Dbm7 Cm7 Bb Maj7 Gm7
BENEITH MY FEET MY WHOLE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND I KNEW DEEP DOWN INSIDE
C7 F Db9 C9 F Cdim
THIS WAS MY LIFE
4
F F7 C7 Dm7 Gm7 C7
SO I SAID GOOD-BY TO THE CITY AU REVOIR TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F F7
AND HELLO TO THE TROPICS ISLAND BLUE
F F7 Bb Bb7 F Db9 C9 F Caug F7
AND HELLO TO TO THE TROPICS ISLAND BLUE
© 12/5/2011 Christopher R. Rehm BMI
Island Blue
Drums: Richard Crooks, Bass: Dan Simpson, Vocals: Misty Loggins, Keyboards: Ericson Holt, Guitar: Chris Rehm, Pedal Steel: Gary Carter B/G Vocals: Dani Hoy
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