CD "Review": Jim Morris, "The Man Who Offered The Moon"

I have seen Jim Morris live a number of times and have been to – even hosted – lots of House Concerts. But, I have never seen Jim Morris at a House concert. It’s on my Bucket List! Jim is one of those rare singer/songwriters – like Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Buffett -  able to populate his songs with larger than life characters. Whether it’s the serendipitous lover and her teacher and banker friends in “Thursday Afternoon at the Conch House Lounge” or the Tropical Man in “Laid Back and Key Wasted” - they may not ACTUALLY exist, but they sure seem like they could – or should. I’d love to spend some quality time listening to Jim talk about the stories behind his songs, find out how much is truth with “names changed to protect the guilty” and how much is poetic license.

Jim continues the tradition on his latest cd, “The Man Who Offered the Moon”. Take track number nine, for example - “Long Money” - where Jim gets booked to play a private party at a beachfront mansion where the guests are “doctors and lawyers and assorted egomaniacs”. The women in attendance are “surgically blessed and all those parts they purchased seem to fit together well”. The host of the shindig, referred to only as the “Big Dog”, is a “smiley fella” who has been “working hard turning paradise into condos”. It’s a five and a half minute short film set to music. You can imagine the “beautiful lady” when she walks in to the party, picture the manicured lawn “littered with bottles of bourbon and vodka and gin”. It’s the sign of a great songwriter when you can “see” the song, as well as hear it.

In “Party Dress”, the scene is another party, this one “right there on the bayou, down around New Orleans”. The host of this soiree is a fella named “Dickie Bones” who likes to drink and dance and who “greets you when you come to call”. Beer and Margaritas flow, and a band plays while “Frankie boils the crawfish”. Once again, it’s such a vivid picture you’ll find yourself wishing you had been there!

Another reason Jim Morris sits among the upper echelon of Trop Rock artists is his often understated sense of humor. I say understated because he doesn’t resort to tired clichés – doesn’t hit you over the head with the punch line. Take “Your Girlfriend Says Hello”: The hero in the song quits the job that was making him unhappy, tells the boss “the dream you were selling just didn’t work out” and runs off to enjoy sand and sea with a new lady friend - who is, well the title says it all. The twist is that, throughout the song she is referred to as “your girlfriend”, until the last thirty seconds of the song when that changes to “MY girlfriend”. Then there is “Tonight I Came Here To Drink”, where the singer tells a woman at the bar in a skimpy dress and great legs to “stop pointing them at me”, then observes “I see you’re from Brazil, or at least you appear to be”. That doesn’t mean Morris can’t be blunt when he wants to. He also says “Came Here to Drink”, “It’s hard to concentrate when I’m staring at your ass”. Or take “Mr. Right”. I don’t think anyone is going to accuse him of subtlety when the object of the singer’s affection is asked “Why don’t you do me?”

Other stand out tracks include the nostalgic “One Layer of Clothes”, with Morris and a college buddy jumping into a sports car and hitting the road in search of “ a world we’d never seen, things we’d never done”. Who can’t relate to their younger days when money wasn’t important and time was irrelevant? “The End Of Time” follows the popular Trop Rock scenario of a guy who ditches the corporate world to find what really makes him happy, including “sunny skies, salty air” and a “girl who says she loves me, fine Jamaican Rum”. It includes one of my favorite Jim Morris lines of all time: “I’ll be happy until the end of time, but I hope it never comes.” And, finally, remember the old Disco nugget “It’s Raining Men”? Personally, I like Jim’s weather report a whole lot better. “Raining Rum” tells the story of a guitar player who “grew up in Kentucky on a rutabaga farm”, whose “mom died in a bar fight, and “dad was Baptist preacher ‘till the cops found all the dope”. You’ll just have to listen to the song to find out, as the late Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. It’s another one of those colorful narratives that makes you want to find out how much is based on reality and how much is pure fiction. One of the most upbeat songs on the cd, it’s destined to be a Jim Morris concert favorite.

Some additional details: Trop Rock heart throb John Patti is responsible for the steel drums and percussion on “The Man Who Offered The Moon” and twelve of the thirteen tunes are Morris originals – the only cover being Rodney Crowell’s “Song For Life”.

CD overview: Scott Kirby, "Sol Searching"

Scott Kirby, Sol Searching, Little Flock Music

I’ve told this story so many times, if you have heard it before feel free to skip forward a few lines. Back about seven or eight years ago, I was listening to Radio Margaritaville when I heard –  with a nod to Monty Python – “something completely different”. The lyrics had to do with the beach, but it wasn’t done by Jimmy Buffett. The RM website didn’t tell me who it was and I listened for the dj to announce the song but he never did. The same thing happened the next half dozen or so times I heard it – but each time I would stop whatever I was doing and listen, transfixed by the lyrics about living by blue water – something I have had the opportunity to do a couple of times, only to get yanked back to reality way before I felt it was time. I long to do it again someday and I wore the words of the song like a dream coat. Eventually, I found out the song was called “Lucky Enough” by Scott Kirby. I have had the good fortune to see Scott perform several times – interviewed him for my blog, Beaches, Bands & Bars. Not only do I credit him (and Radio Margaritaville) for opening my eyes and ears to the world of Trop Rock, but Scott remains one of my favorite Trop Rock performers – and that song, “Lucky Enough”, still sits on my list of favorite songs of all time... “I’ll raise my glass, you can kiss my old ass” indeed.

Fast forward to 2013 and Scott’s latest cd, Sol Searching. It’s his sixth studio outing – seventh overall, counting his live “Night On The Beach” cd. And, once again, it’s full of reflections on the turning of one’s calendar pages and the desire to find that place in your life that makes YOU happy, where you’re “Lucky Enough”. But, unlike some artists who tend to focus on the partying side of our annual trip around the sun – the “bright and shiny” - Scott’s songs tend towards the wistful and introspective. But, not in a negative sense. I made the observation to Scott once that, at first listen his lyrics may sound “glass half empty”, he is really an optimist. He seemed surprised by that but thought some more and finally said, “I guess you’re right!”. It’s the difference between writing about the rainbow and writing about the guy holding the empty pot at the other end, waiting for it to get filled with Gold. And, if only a few coins fall in it’s ok, as long as you’re near someone you love – and blue water. The opening track is a great example, “Turning Of The Tide”. Featuring a melancholy harmonica and gentle piano, it includes lines like “Days go by and how time flies…” and “Baby we were born to be in a shanty down by the sea…cause folks like us were meant to live in small houses”. But, like many of Scott’s songs, it isn’t about giving up, it’s about acceptance, and finding fulfillment in those things that make you smile. In “Turning”, once the singer accepts that “the big new place, you see, it was never meant to be” he lays his head down to get a good night’s sleep.

Next up is the title track, with its play on words (Sol being the Spanish word for Sun). Cut from similar cloth, musically, with a saxophone substituting for harmonica, “Sol Searching” immediately makes me want to pack up the car and drive somewhere whenever I hear it - Anywhere there are boats bobbing on the water. “Pick up the pieces, pick up the pace…when all you want to do is feel the sun on your face” and “When you wake stark mad in the middle of the night…southwind whispers, baby, book that flight”. If I ever get a boat, I want to name it Sol Searching.

Although Scott spends a lot of time in Key West and the bar in which he’s a co-owner, the Smokin’ Tuna, he splits his year between there and his “home port” in New England. Several songs on Sol Searching pay homage to those roots, including track three, “Any Old Town In New England”. A clap along rocker, the focus is on Beantown but places like Nantucket Sound and Narragansett Bay also get name dropped. ”Vineyard” (the only track on the cd not written by Scott) and the closing number, “Old Beach House” also take the listener to the Northeastern US – the latter an especially poignant song about respecting where you come from that could have just as easily been recorded by the late, great John Denver. “Life is not a perfect thing, it’s tattered and it’s torn, like the curtains in this old beach house the wooden steps so worn. But, when it’s all been said and done we do the best we can and pray for one more perfect day…”

I have used words like wistful, melancholy, and poignant to describe Scott Kirby’s music but he is no sour puss. As I said earlier, his songs brim with an understated optimism - and more than a little humor. “Guys Like Us”, for instance, explores the chemistry between crazy women and the fellas who fall for them, “You Better Believe Her!” is about – well, crazy women (“If she tells you she’s bat shit crazy you better believe her”) and “Whiskey” is a funky, bluesy love letter to that golden spirit.  

I can’t review a Scott Kirby cd without mentioning the sound. While some Trop Rockers opt for the lo-fi approach, letting electronics substitute for real musicians (generally due to limited budget), Kirby cds, Sol Searching included, are full-on professional productions, with strings, brass and lots of top notch guests. Peter Mayer lends backing vocals and the All-Star rhythm section of Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt) lend a hand on “Guys Like Us”.

Another outstanding outing from a true singer/songwriter. Now, excuse me while I pour a glass of rum, settle in to my comfy chair… and do a little “Sol Searching”. For more on Scott and his music, www.scottkirby.com

CD Reviews: John Friday and Yankee Jack

John Friday, Coastal Cowboy

John Friday is a self–described "Tropical Balladeer and Displaced Pirate" who originally hails from Maryland. The singer/songwriter's eclectic background includes a stint as a crabber on the Chesapeake Bay, as well as assorted attempts at college, studying subjects from biology to business. After an injury ended his thirteen year Army career, Friday settled in the Naples area of Florida and started writing songs and performing in the local bars. In 2009, he released his first full length cd, "Coastal Dreamin'", which included the rollicking ditties “Ain’t Missing a Thing” and “Rita’s Going Wild”.

That’s the intro to an interview I did with John, aka “The Teddy Bear of Trop Rock”, a couple years back. Since then, I have had a number of chances to hear John play live – including a memorable House Concert in Atlanta where he played…and played…and played…for over four hours, mixing in his impressive collection of originals with some creative cover songs. That event, hosted by a group I co-founded called the Atlanta Trop Rock Alliance, was also the first place I heard some of the tunes that would wind up on his latest cd, “Coastal Cowboy” – also a collection of mostly originals with a couple of carefully chosen covers..

The cd kicks off with the rocking party starter, “Beachfront” where John describes a typical Parrot Head pot luck: “You bring the tequila, I’ll bring the salt and limes”.  The next track, “Home”, brims with optimism and positive vibes – over a shuffling guitar track and 60’s Soul organ fills. It’s hard to hold a frowny face when you have a church choir singing, “So happy” over and over! As someone who can’t wait to ditch the city life for a Salty Piece of Land, the whistful “Coastal Dreamin’”, track three on the cd, has become the soundtrack to my life – as well as a source of inspiration. Like the song says, “…these coastal dreams are all I need to get me through the day”.

Other stand out cuts include the title track, which jumbles together images of Cowboys and Sailboats (sort of a Trop Rock version of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead Or Alive”) and “Kisses With My Coffee”, a sweet and sentimental love song with a super catchy chorus. Friday’s twisted sense of humor takes a front seat in the half kids’ ditty/half barroom sing along, “Nils The Rasta Viking”. “He took his shield and made a steel drum out of it…he’s Nils the Rasta Viking, drinking rum and aquavit”. I mentioned covers earlier – Michael Franti & Spearhead’s 2009 Summer hit, “Say Hey (I Love You)” gets the Teddy Bear treatment, and John pays tribute to one of his musical inspirations, Dan Fogelberg, with a beautiful ballad titled “When You’re Not Near Me”, a cut from Fogelberg’s 2003 cd, “Full Circle”.

http://johnfriday.com/index.html

Yankee Jack, Key West Conch-troversial

Sitting up close to hear Yankee Jack in a bar  is like being in the front row at a Gallagher show – eventually, you’re gonna get hit with something. Only, in Jack’s case, it’s not sledgehammered fruit – it’s humor, mostly of the “not politically correct” variety. Tourists, foreigners, gays, fat people, skinny people, women with large breasts – breasts in general. They all get lovingly attended to (or skewered) at a Yankee Jack show. Typical Jack Joke (paraphrased): “They’re outlawing mini skirts on Duval Street. The problem is the testicles hanging below the hemline”. Bad-dum-bum. If you’ve been to Key West, chances are you’ve heard Yankee Jack. He holds court most weekdays at the Bull and Whistle on Duval  and – given the open air layout of the first-floor Bull – the laughter and music is usually heard spilling out into the street.

Key West Conch-troversial, Jack’s latest cd of original material, is a conglomeration of “straight” material with plenty of his over the top musical comedy. The opening track, a tribute to his adopted home town (originally from new England, Jack moved to Key West in 1989) “Cayo Hueso”, mixes the two. One minute he’s singing about sleeping on the beach under the stars, the next he’s admiring a woman with “a great caboose”. “Same Sex Sunday” is not about spending part of the weekend hanging out with your own gender, like the title might imply. Instead, it’s an ode to stuck in a rut marriages (“What we used to do like stars of porn is scheduled now for Sunday morn”). “Jesus Was a Democrat” will probably tweak those on the Right but, then again, Conservative has never been a word associated with Key West. “The Last Mudslide” is a musical shout out to Jack’s main employer that floats a familiar theme  – a Key West visitor that isn’t quite ready to head back home (“I’m strapped in a plane and I wish I were back – drinking Mudslides on the bar at the Bull”).

More of the larger than life Yankee Jack’s humor appears on “If It Flirts, Floats Or Flies, Rent It” (“A woman gives you nookie, but she might wind up to look like Snookie”) and the title track, another tribute to his adopted island home, “Very Conch-troversial” (“The Southernmost point is my new home, I come from a land they call bitch and moan, and half this island’s getting stoned”). But, just when you think you’ve got Jack figured out as a jokester and humorist, he slides comfortably into a soft piano ballad like “The Sea”, or a catchy Trop rock toast to a seaside town, like “Casco Bay”.  

For a taste of Jack’s live show, check out his cd, “The Best Of Yankee Jack Live in Key West”. Just don’t sit too close to the speakers.  http://yankeejack.com/

CD Previews: New Music from Howard Livingston, Eric Stone, Jerry Diaz & Hanna's Reef and Loren Davidson

Howard Livingston, Six Pack And a Tan

“He’s got this habit that I’m growing to hate, his almost continuous status updates ‘bout his life in the Keys and all that he’s going through…When it’s all said and done, man you know we wanna be like you. I wanna be Howie….” - Paul Roush, “I Wanna Be Howie”

Who WOULDN’T want to be Howard Livingston? A closet full of shorts and flips flops, fishing and playing Trop Rock…with the blue water and sand of the Florida Keys as the backdrop to your daily activities? It’s a Parrot Head’s dream! But, there’s only one “Howie” and if we can’t BE him, the only choice remaining is to live vicariously through him, via his Facebook page…and his cds.

Howard’s latest release is called “Six Pack and A Tan” and, like of all his earlier cds, it’s a lyrical and music tour of the Conch Republic, a tropical party on a round silver disc.  “Six Pack…” opens with the title track, the story of a retired military man who makes “cold beer and a fishing pole his new battle plan.”. Ditching it all and heading for somewhere warm and sunny is a recurring theme in Howard’s music and, why not? It’s what he did many years ago, leaving the corporate life to be a guitar picker in the Keys.

Next up is “Magic In Key West”, an ode to the Conch Republic that name drops Jimmy Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker. One interesting thing about Howie’s music is that, although he calls South Florida home, many of his tunes sound like they were written South of the Border – with Tijuana brass and Mariachi rhythms that would make Mark Mulligan proud.

“Keysified” is another in a long line of ‘leaving the business world behind and heading for the beach’ songs that owes their origin to Buffett classics like “The Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful”. In Howard’s version, the heroine is headed to a convention in Miami when she gets the bug, rents a convertible and heads down US1. Fueled by a Pina Colada in Islamorada, somewhere over the Seven Mile bridge she loses her business suit, changes into “a little bikini” and never looks back.

Another recurring them in Howard Livingston’s music - and a key ingredient for a majority of all trop rock, for that matter - is alcohol and the partaking of it. Boat Drinks, Margaritas, Rum, ice cold Cervezas. It’s not much of a Parrot Head Party without ‘em . “Five Lines in A Tervis Tumbler” is a reggaefied tribute to those wonderful hot/cold drink recepticles –  a Trop Rockin’ version of “Red Solo Cup”, featuring Howard’s favorite beverage, Coconut rum.

Marine-based puns are nothing new to Trop Rock (see John Reno’s “Lobster But Never Flounder”) and Howard incorporates a number of them in the boogie woogie “Something Fishy’s Going On”.  Funny song, but all I can say is, if I ever walk into my house and find “candles were lit, lights were low, Marvin Gaye on the stereo” and find my wife “laying in our bed wearing a leopard skin thong”? I’m not questioning the motives!

“Six Pack and a Tan” also features one of the oddest Trop Rock songs I have to say I’ve ever heard. Riding a “Puff the Magic Dragon” beat, “Peeing On A Coconut Tree” includes lines like “we were peeing on a Sycamore tree, just my daddy and me”. I’ve GOT to ask Howard about that one the next time I see him…

But, not all of “Six Pack and a Tan” is about throwing responsibilities to the wind and firing up the blender (or relieving yourself on vegetation). Howard intersperses the party tunes with some self reflection and songs tailor-made for swinging in a hammock.  “Another Sunset” rocks gently on a Mexican breeze, “Slow” is a romantic ballad with an appropriate title, and “Younger Every Day” is a mellow number about not fearing the passing the time. Need a song to help you take a mental vacation the next time it’s cold and cloudy? Cue up “Rainy Day in Paradise”. Somehow, even bad weather seems imminently more bearable when the rain drops are falling into the ocean. 

Wrapping up the cd is an upbeat musical snapshot of life in Livingston Land: “Out On Sandy Key”.  Friends, food, music, booze and boats – all under the South Florida sun.  Like Paul Roush’s song says, I wanna be Howie!

Eric Stone, Time To Fly

I have heard his name for years but only recently became familiar with Eric’s music. On the way down to last year’s Meeting Of The Minds, my wife and I stopped by to see him play a set at a roadside tiki bar in Islamorada. Since then, I have included several of his tunes on my show, Trop Rockin’ Live, and can now, happily, answer “Yes!” when someone comes up to me at one of my dj gigs to ask, “Do you have any Eric Stone?”

His latest cd is a well-blended mix of Trop Rock and good old American R&R with a swing through the Lonestar State. Much of the material focuses on chasing your dreams and living life on your own terms, especially if those terms include beaches, boats and bars. The main character in “Ave De Paso” is an “old man chasing the wind”. “Jimmy’s Drive In” finds the hero leaving behind West Texas for a different kind of sun and sand, and in “Way Down In Mexico”, Eric invites anyone who wants to join him to “follow me…we’ll drink Pacificos, we’ll be free…down by the sea”. “Life Like A Novel” and the title track continue the theme of escaping and “searching for a better state of mind”. From name-dropping tumbleweed towns like Odessa to mentions of rattlesnakes and crossing the border, Texas also looms large on “Time To Fly”, musically and lyrically… The Tex-Mex party is in full swing on “Bad Tequila”, where Eric teaches us a lesson about the difference between rock gut and the good stuff.

Jerry Diaz & Hanna's Reef "On A Beach In Mexico"

 I spent some time – many years ago – living in Corpus Christi, not far from Jerry Diaz’s home on the South Texas Gulf coast. I loved the lifestyle, sailboats, wind surfing and Margaritas (why I left is a long story but involves thinking I needed to get somewhere less laid back if I wanted to develop a career. I know, stupid, right? Now, all I can think about is getting back to the beach!), While I was there, I also fell in love with Tex Mex music; Freddy Fender, the Texas Tornadoes, Joe King Carrasco. Which is just another reason why I love Jerry and Hannah’s Reef so much. They mix plenty of south of the border into their Trop Rock for something they appropriately call “Texas Beach Music”.

Named after a local Texas fishing spot, Hannah’s Reef is Jerry on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Mireles on steel drums and acoustic guitar, Chuck Willingham on drums, Bobby Summers on Bass, Bud Byram on percussion, and Heli Martin on guitars. If there is a theme to Jerry Diaz and Hannah’s Reef’s latest cd, “On a Beach In Mexico”, which I guess can be said about most Trop Rock, it is escape… Songs like the title track, “Senoritaville”, and “Down To the Islands” are all about packing your bags and heading to somewhere with sand, sun and drinks with salted rims. In “Down To The islands”, the singer is “stuck somewhere in Arkansas” and says, “I’m a restless soul in a watering hole, drinking rum just to get away” then offers “When my ship comes in, I’m gonna jump right in. I can’t wait to get outta here”.

The desire to leave what ails you behind and head to “a place to go when you’ve had your fill of honey do’s and honey don’ts” continues in “Welcome to Senoritaville” where the singer is down on his luck, “broker than hell” and the IRS is “moving in any day”. Then the answer hits him, “a flight down to Laredo was just what I needed”. And in “On a Beach In Mexico”, the singer dreams of  “tropical islands and places I wanna be” while suffering under a “Cold Nebraska sky”.  

But the songs on “On a Beach In Mexico” aren’t simply about wanting to swap a bad situation for a better one, they’re also about the flip side: thoroughly enjoying a really good situation: “I’ve got something money can’t buy, a good lovin’ woman standing by my side” (“I’ve Got Love”), as well as making the best of the hand you’re dealt:  “Just give me ten to twenty, and I’ll feel just fine. The wind at my back and a bottle of wine” (“Ten To Twenty”) and “If  there’s beer in the cooler, I’ll be alright” (“Beer In The Cooler”).  Wrapping up the cd is a staple of Hannah’s Reef live shows, “We’ll Get By” – which features a guest appearance by John Reno. Think of it as a Margarita glass half full kind of tune, with lines like,  “Well it takes me nearly all I’ve got,  just to make ends meet”and  “But that’s ok, come what may, we’ll get by”. Amen, brother.

Loren Davidson "Of All The Rum Joints"

If you want to make music for a living, writing and recording is just PART of the process. You also need to PROMOTE. And few people work harder at it than California’s Loren Davidson. Anytime I post something on Facebook asking artists to submit information for my blog or music for my BeachFrontRadio show, “Trop Rockin’ Live”, Loren is always one of the first people to respond. The title of latest cd, “Of All the Rum Joints” and one of the songs on the cd, “Looking at You” are both nods to my favorite movie of all time, Casablanca. Produced, engineered and mixed by popular Trop Pock producer, Kevin Johnson at Orca Sound in Maryland, “Of All the Rum Joints” features eleven original songs written by Loren, plus two covers – The Doors’ “Moonlight Drive” and “Sunshine on My Shoulder” from John Denver. The originals are some of Loren’s best ever – “Voodoo Lounge” has a bluesy, back alley New Orleans vibe, “Fly Away” wouldn’t sound out of place on a Zac Brown Band cd, and “One More Rum” is a clap along tune about the trials and tribulations of being a live performer in a room full of party people who want to buy you drinks all night.