Key West Songwriter’s Festival 2018

May 14, 2018

Randy Houser

with REK



Keith Gattis



Key West Songwriter’s Festival 2018

This year for the twenty-third year in a row, Key West hosted the largest event in the world devoted to songwriters and once again attracted musicians and music lovers from all over the world and offering singer-songwriter performances from sun up to sun down. The popular event features more than 100 top songwriters, 200 performers, and more than 50 shows staged over five days at more than 25 of Key West's most popular drinking holes and hot spots.

Florida Georgia Line







The event is organized by our friends Charlie Bauer of the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon as well as Nadene Grossman from We’ve Got the Keys and joining in this year, Kyle Carter from Mile 0. They do a spectacular job juggling the massive logistics of hosting so many mini-events over the course of four days as well as accommodating the hundreds of artists and others who show up in Key West for the event. It ranks of one of our most favorite annual events.





Beau



Sadly this year, both Kathy and I had to miss about half of the event, different halves as I was there for the first two days and Kathy for the last two as I left for Indianapolis and Kathy returned from Colorado. At least we each were able to see parts of this magnificent event. It is impossible to attend all of the festival anyway as each day there are performances at multiple venues stretching out across the Key West community.









Mayor Cates, Cheryl and Kyle

There are shows at all types of venues ranging from intimate poolside shows, to shows in cool venues like the Tropic Cinema, San Carlos Institute, Studios of Key West and the Key West Theater, to bar shows in about every major bar and saloon on the island and finally larger venues like the new Key West Amphitheater or the Duval Street temporary stage in which the street is blocked off and a huge crowd masses on Duval to watch the show.







Scott and Jodi

With close to 200 performers the talent ranges from those just breaking in to the music industry to established stars such as Robert Earl Keen, Randy Houser and Florida Georgia Line. Many other country stars have passed through, using this festival as a steppingstone to greater stardom, people like Jamey Johnson and Maren Morris. No matter how huge the performer, the focus of this festival is actually on the songs.





Almost every significant songwriter in Nashville comes to the island annually and as fans, we get to hear rhe songs that you hear on the radio, performed by their original writers usually in an acoustic guitar format. Often the songwriters will tell the backstory of how they came up with songs that went on to become mega-hits and it is just so cool to get a glimpse into the process behind the scenes.
I love it all and I am not even that big a fan of country music, but hearing the songs stripped down without all the production techniques used in the studio gives me a much greater appreciation of the music and what it takes to write a successful song. Plus I get to see multiple performances by the legendary Robert Earl Keen, who is one of my favorite performers.

Keith Gattis




Rich and Penny






This year I attended the opening night kickoff celebration concert, held on the pier at Margaritaville Resort which featured Keith Gattis and the Amigos with special guests Randy Houser and Jamie Lin Wilson. The free opening night concert attracted a ton of locals to the sunset pier including Key West Mayor Craig Cates and his wife Cheryl and a bunch more people who share my feeling that this is one of the best annual events in Key West.


Storme Warren

Nick


It was a rousing start to what would be another amazing weekend in Key West. My next stop was to the ticketed show at the San Carlos Institutte. This was one of the most anticipated and special shows of the festival as it is not often these days that megacountry stars Florida Georgia Line perform acoustically in such a small venue. They are normally packing huge stadiums so it was cool to see them in such an intimate setting.









The show, which was a benefit for Hurricane Irma relief, also featured songwriters Cameron Montgomery, James McNair, Daniel Ross, RaeLyn, Sarah Buxton, Jordan Scmidt, Craig Wiseman, Corey Crowder, Morgan Wallen as well as Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelly. The crowd was going berserk and was one of the most raucous and excited concert crowd I have ever seen in my life.











It was much more quiet and serene at the show at the Key West Theater that I also snuck over to check out. Robert Earl was playing there and I will alsways choose seeing him over just about any others. The show also featured Clint Daniels, Ronnie Bowman and Paul Thorn and it was quiet and pensive as the other show was rowdy. Both were excellent though and I loved them both.





Erin

REK

The highlight for me is always the Thursday morning Bloody Mary Brunch at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon with Robert Earl Keen. It is another opportunity to see a living legend perform in a totally intimate setting with probably about 100 lucky attendees who scored tickets in the five minutes they were on-sale prior to selling out. This is always one of my favorite KWSF shows and this year was no exception as REK was on the money once again playing almost all of my favorite songs. Such a pleasure to see and ti get to hang out with the man.





Robert Earl Keen