Bruce Springsteen & The Key West Songwriters' Festival

May 8, 2008

Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band



Key West Songwriters' Festival

Kathy, Nadene & Trevor

The 13th annual Hog’s Breath Key West Songwriters Festival, one of our most favorite Key West events was held this past weekend and Kathy & I took in as many of the myriad of shows as we could, with a brief interruption to head up to Ft. Lauderdale to see Bruce Springsteen.



The festival is organized by our good friend Nadene and this year it featured 128 Songwriters who performed 40 shows at 25 venues ranging from tiny intimate bars, to the main stage in the parking lot of the Hog’s Breath to sailing aboard the Catamaran Fury.

The Pier House stage

As always, Kathy & I tried to catch as many shows as possible, starting with the kick-off party featuring James Slater atop the LaConcha Hotel then on to the beach at the Pier House and later at the Conch Farm, and that was just the first night.
Most of the writers are from Nashville and many of the familiar hits we heard during the week were recorded by Country Music superstars. Somehow, hearing them performed acoustically as they were written and with the back story included makes you realize just how great many of these songs. I certainly prefer them stripped down without all the layers of production that you hear in the radio versions.

Robert Earl Keen Jr.

Casa Marina

The performers this year were top notch, highlighted by the inclusion of Texas legend Robert Earl Keen Jr., but also including the likes of former Mavericks frontman Raul Malo, John Oates half of the uber-successful Hall & Oates, Jeffrey Steele, Scotty Emerick and dozens of others.

Robert Earl, Kylie Sackley & Kim Richey

Scotty Emerick

In the middle of the festival, we had to drive to Lauderdale for the night to see the rescheduled Bruce Springsteen concert. The show had to be rescheduled due to the passing of E-Street band member Danny Federici. It was an inspired performance, after a beautiful video tribute to Danny, Bruce and the band launched into “The Promised Land” and didn’t let up for three hours. It was an incredible show with a great set list and the band in top form. The man truly is amazing and the last 5 songs or so, which included, “Thunder Road”, “Born to Run”, “Rosalita”, and “10th Avenue Freeze-out” were as good a stretch of a live show as I can recall seeing.

Bruce


Key West Songwriters' Festival