We have something in common… We both spent time in Corpus Christi, Texas. You were born in San Antonio, but grew up in Corpus. But, then your family moved to Southern California. How bad of a culture clash was that – going from coastal Texas to late 60’s Southern California??
It was a culture clash, moving to California, but not in the way you might expect. I went from beachy Corpus Christi (which is where I’m sure my love of the ocean comes from) to the Country music capital of the West, Bakersfield, which was WAY less tropical, and fairly “Leave It To Beaver”. We moved to an area that, no kidding, from the end of my street was desert-like conditions for the next 20 miles to the mountains. Bakersfield was a great location to be, though. 110 miles from the LA beaches, a couple of hours to Yosemite and the Sequoias (where you could go backpacking and rock climbing and skiing). We also had the Kern River to tube in the summer. Not bad!
Something else we have in common; we were both influenced into our careers – me as a dj and you as a musician – by what we heard on the radio, although on different coasts. What are your first recollections of music in California the late 60’s and early 70’s? Can you remember the first artist you heard that made you go, “Wow! I want to do THAT!”?
Oh, it starts even before that. I remember country swing bands in the San Antonio area, and the Beatles, Stones and Beach Boys from the mid 60s’. In California, we had a particularly strong MoTown and Stax influence on the radio, along with Credence, Loggins and Messina, and the usual suspectes from that era. Jefferson Airplane, Steppenwolf, Hendrix. I missed the regional east coast people, like Springsteen. That came later.
Tell me about your first guitar…
My first guitar was my Dad’s. It was a cheap one he bought in Mexico. He played a little, and I started on that one. I remember in 1969 he came home with a brand new Yamaha FG180. It cost something like $120, which was a lot then. It was so much easier to play, and I eventually took that one over and played it or the next 20 years. I finally bought my Martin MDC around 1996, and Dad got his guitar back. He’s been playing ever since. My first electric was a Telecaster. I bought it used and regret selling it. I must have close to a dozen guitars now, mostly second hand cheapies and oddities. I like weird guitars. My main guitar for many years was a Fender Strat, in the Antigua finish. I bought it new (my first new guitar) in 1980. I’ve only seen two like it. One was owned by Eric Clapton, the other by the musical director for the Drifters, with whom I did a couple of gigs in the mid 80’s. I still have it, but it needs some work. It’s been bashed around a lot, and has yellowed over the years.
From California you went cross-coast to Nashville. What made you say – “I need to go to THERE”?
I was living in Northern California after going to college at Chico State, 90 miles north of Sacramento. I had a band with a drummer friend and our guitar player, Bill Cooley, moved to Nashville and immediately went to work with Reba McEntire (he’s now with Kathy Mattea). Then the drummer went out there to work with Allan Jackson. I figured it was time to try my luck in Music City. I got there and got a job doing data entry RC COLA. lol. But I was interested in song writing, and hung out at the Bluebird Cafe, where I met many wonderful people, heard all the best songwriters, and just soaked it all in. It was like grad school for songwriting. And I feel the next question coming on......
You know what’s next, right? Following the Sunny Jim song line, from Texas to California to Nashville…you wound up in playing in the Cayman Islands…How did you get that gig?
It sounds like a country song but I got my heart broken by a cute girl in Nashville, and joined the first band that was headed out of town.. lol That was a show band called the Marvells. After a year on the road, we landed a job as the house band at the Treasure Island Resort on Grand Cayman.
How does a Nashville band get a gig in Grand Cayman?
The resort was owned by some Nashville artists, so that's the connection.
Eventually that Marvells "house band" contract ran out, but you stayed...
Part of our contract included learning to scuba dive and getting to dive whenever there was space available on the boats. We worked five nights a week, and were finished at midnight on Saturdays (thanks to Cayman music and dancing law). So there was ample free time to enjoy island life. Which, I most certainly did. Why would I want to leave that? Oh, and I met my wife that October on her birthday. We were engaged by April, and married the following January (Super Bowl Sunday… she’s a Cowboy Fan and I’m indifferent). We’ve been married 22 years now and have 19 year old twin daughters.
Care to share any good Cayman stories from that time period – characters you met, colorful bars you played or hung out in?
I really should write a book. There are SO many stories. Here’s just a little taste:
Full moon night scuba dive parties, beach parties, tourist girls at the Holiday Inn on the beach (Barefoot Man Rocks!), locals inviting us into their homes and becoming life long friends, Pirates Week (Carnival), Australians, Brits, Philipinos, Germans, Canadians, Irish and French, South Africans, Jamaicans, wading in the Caribbean on my set breaks, Hurricane Gilbert and not being able to get off the island, my $500 first car, my amazing Trusty Rusty (the 3 cylinder minivan that seated 8 people - or four and dive gear), my Victoria 18 sailboat that I rebuilt with Rob Shirley (who started the Mastercraft Boat company in his garage), meeting Rob Morrow, joking with George Hamilton about Buffett, becoming friends with Al Roker (and taking him on his first night dive and going to his wedding in NYC), meeting Jimmy Buffett on his 50th birthday and ending up in his book “A Pirate Looks at 50” and playing on Radio Margaritaville (the first non-Coral Reefer and first time for R.M. out of the U.S.), meeting Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman and especially Sidney Pollack, hanging out with my band, snorkeling every Sunday morning at Eden Rock, learning to sail with Captain Phil, Sunday champagne brunch at the Hyatt, meeting shady people, raising my girls as a semi-stay at home Dad (THE BEST THING), and on and on.
But, at some point, you decided you needed to move back to the States. Was that a tough decision?
The reason for coming home was twofold. First, my girls were very bright and needed to be in a school for gifted children, which they didn't have in Grand Cayman. Second, work permit issues were getting to be a drag. We were ready to be in our own country again.
How much time do you spend on the road now?
For two years, I spent two hours a day driving my Katie to and from school. Now that my girls are driving (second year of college!) I am able to travel a LOT more. Now, I’m all over the map. I’d say I’m gone from home about a fourth of the year. And now that my wife is working from home, she gets to come to the really cool shows. This year we’re looking at Hawaii (with Tom and Michelle Becker- Latitude), Isla Mujeres, Mexico with Mark Mulligan and Kelly McGuire, and Grand and Little Cayman this summer with the Barefoot Man. What a life!
I’m sure you have lots of favorite places to play around the country, but what about bars in your backyard; When you’re not touring and playing, what are your favorite home town hang outs - where would we find Sunny Jim on a day off and what would he be drinking?
Funny you should ask… Adela and I are heading to lunch today around the corner at the Spanish Point Grill. Also the Casey Key Fish House, Pops Sunset Grill. All old Florida style. We’re not city folk… lol We like to stay near our little Fishing Village of Osprey. And Rum and Coke is the drink of choice. Any dark rum.
At least once a week I have a discussion with someone about the pros and cons of the term “Trop Rock”. I see it as a descriptive term for a style of music – in the same way people use “Country” or “Americana”. It’s a jumping off point for what kind of material you can mostly expect you’re going to hear from that artist, as opposed to say, “Singer/songwriter” which is such a broad term. Others say it pigeonholes a performer. What’s your take?
I agree that it’s a good jumping off point. It seems to me that TropRock covers a lot of people who play music for Parrothead Clubs, even though they may be more rock than anything. I think my music does fit that name pretty well. I definitely have my 12 years of island life as inspiration for the lyrics I write, but the music isn’t all calypso and soca. Some twang pops in from my rockabilly days and my early Texas exposures.
Last year was the first Meeting of the Minds for my wife, Georgia, and I. We were originally planning to leave Sunday but people told us we HAD to stay for your Songwriter's Showcase at Blue Heaven – and we’re glad we did. That has become a staple of the yearly gathering in Key West. How did that come about?
My first MOTM was in 1998. It was when Hurricane Mitch hit. That was the worst storm of the 1998 season. It meandered around the Caribbean, sank the Fantome and crossed the Keys as we were driving down. Welcome to MOTM! My friend from Houston, Marcy Delissandri, got me booked at Blue Heaven, and that Sunday I did my show solo on the top of the water tower. I was back there in 99. In 2000, we moved back to the US from Grand Cayman, and I was on the road for the better part of that year. I had met so many good writers and performers, I decided that I wanted to turn Blue Heaven into a songwriter showcase, and expose listeners to people they may not have heard of, as well as get to visit with musician friends that I only got to see when traveling around the country. It’s been ongoing since then, and I only wish we had more time there!
House concerts have become a big part of the Parrot Head/Trop Rock experience. Kelly McGuire says he loves doing them because they are a LISTENING experience, as opposed to a bar gig where you have to compete with everything else going on. How do you feel about them? Do you do many?
I do lots of house concerts, and much prefer that to a bar gig. Unless the bar is on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean! lol A house concert needs to be differentiated from a house party, where a concert is a listening/learning experience and a house party is, well, party time... If any of your readers see that I will be in their area and would be interested in doing a house concert, they should contact me through my web site. It’s easy to do one, and it’s really the best experience for the listener. It’s intimate.
I don’t want to give too much about the story behind your songs, since that’s what people look forward to hearing at House Concerts. But, tell me a little about a few of my favorites:
“Mermaids”: For my daughters, who grew up snorkeling and swimming every day until they were 8. We used to have such joyous times in the swimming pool at our little Cayman apartment.
“The Tropical Shirt Song”: About a friend who would seem very conservative at the office, but once the weekend rolled around.... watch out!
My wife’s fave, “Fishing In The Milky Way”: About one spectacular night on Grand Caymans North Sound, when there was no moon, no clouds and no wind. The water was like a mirror, reflecting all the stars. If you’ve ever been somewhere where there was little or no ambient light, you know I’m telling the truth when I say you could hardly tell where the water stopped and the sky started. Every time you throw out your fishing line, it looked like you were fishing for stars in the Milky Way. And in my little boat, with my good friend Kean Monohan.
Do you have any others that stand out for you personally?
That’s a tough one. “Isla Adela” (from Postcards From Seven Mile Beach) is very special. Every time I sing it, it’s like saying my wedding vows again. Very uplifting. “Blackbeards Navy” has proven to mean a lot to so many people, that it’s now a favorite. “Moon Over Mustique” really caught the beauty of a moonrise shared between best of friends. I guess I need to put the stories and the lyrics on my web site, because each one of them really is a snapshot of a place in time. “Hallie Let Your Heart Go” changed from being about a girl not wanting to leave “paradise” to being about a father telling his daughter that someday he’ll pass on, and that it’s a part of life like the sun setting and the moon rising. THAT was an amazing songwriting experience.
How did you get the name “Sunny Jim”?
A drummer friend, Andy Arrow, use to call me that - both from my sunny disposition and from the Beatles movie, “Hard Days Night”. Then, in ‘98, I was on a cruise ship on the way to Grand Cayman with the Nashville band. The ship’s Jamaican band jumped ship and they were left with no afternoon entertainment. The Cruise Director asked if one of us could entertain a crowd and I volunteered. He told me I needed a “Caribbean sounding” name, so I used Sunny Jim. The band started calling me that and it stuck.
Anything else you would like people to know about you?
Well, I think it’s obvious that I love what I do, and never take it for granted. I love sharing music with people, hopefully giving them insight to my life and theirs at the same time. It’s the universal language, and it’s all about sharing the joy. Otherwise, I think it’s all pretty much out there... I am who I am (quoting Popeye, no less).
Thanks for your time, Jim
Thanks for the great questions, Fred! See you on the beach!
