“light the sky and hold on tight..” -Shawn Colvin

January 25, 2019

With Shawn Colvin

 

“light the sky and hold on tight..”

-Shawn Colvin

Another night, another concert. This time it was a show at the Key West Theater featuring Grammy award winning singer, songwriter and musician Shawn Colvin.  A multiple Grammy nominee and award winner, mostly for her work in the early 90s, Colvin has enjoyed a successful thirty year career and yet was making her first appearance on a Key West stage at the KW Theater.

 

Again, Kathy and I were fortunate enough to have VIP access which allowed us to attend a private acoustic performance prior to the main show, which also featured a really cool question and answer session. Colvin was charming and open in the really amazing intimate gathering with about a dozen lucky fans. It was a pretty special experience and it certainly made us excited for the actual show. We headed over to grab a drink at the Grand during the break, before heading back for the actual show.

 

Shastina

The opener was local teenage sensation Shastina Chiles. This was a prime gig for the 19 year old local, who has cut her chops playing around town at various bars and events for years and seems primed to break through to a bigger stage at any time, having already put in years honing her craft.  It was cool to see a young talented local share the stage with such an established star and Chiles delivered a strong, well-received set.

Colvin was fantastic. Her voice is as strong and crystal clear as ever and she seemed at ease and happy, bantering playfully with the crowd and delivering a wonderful set that featured a collection of her originals sprinkled with some terrific covers including a great cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher than the Rest”. Of course she also delivered a rousing rendition of her biggest hit, “Sunny Came Home” that had the crowd enthralled.

The weekend also featured another wonderful wacky and unique Key West event as the annual Onesie Bar Stroll happened and I just happened to be downtown to catch some of the craziness. The Onesie stroll is just about what it sounds like, a stroll from bar to bar, with participants dressed in whatever wacky animal onesie that they may have.

Hundreds of adults, dressed in what is basically large children’s pajamas is certainly an odd sight to see, but for Key West it is basically just another day. I caught the very beginning of the stroll which started at Tatoos and Scars before heading down the street to Sloppy Joe’s before going on to who knows where.

Like many of Key West’s craziest events, this one was again a fundraiser for some deserving charity and it gave locals an excuse to do two of their favorite activities, drink and dress crazily, all in the name of a good cause and a lot of fun. It seems to be a very popular event, though one that I prefer to watch rather than participate in. Neither Kathy or I own a onesie and Kathy is still on her New Year’s no alcohol pledge that will last until Valentine’s day. 

http://shawncolvin.com/

Here I Am

January 22, 2019

Air Supply 

Richard Russo

Here I Am

 Kathy and I go to a lot of concerts, usually we are fans of the band we are going to see, though we are not against checking out new and unfamiliar acts. But sometimes there is the rare occasion when we go see someone that we are not really all that big of fans of. In fact if you would have asked me back during their 80s heyday, I would have laughed at the idea that I would go to see Air Supply in concert. They just were not on my radar as something cool and there is little chance that I would have attended one of their concerts.

Fast forward forty years and when the tickets went on sale for an Air Supply show at Sunset Green, not only did I immediately order tickets, but I was happy and excited to do so. I am not sure if my musical tastes have changed all that much or if I just was experiencing what I like to call the nostalgia factor. Whatever the case, we were excited and looking forward to attending. 

 

In fact we even had the VIP meet and greet experience so that we were able to go in early, attend the sound check and meet the band and place our chairs right up in front of the stage for the show. When they came out and started singing the first sound check song, I knew we had made the right choice. It was like a trip back in time as they sang songs that were huge hits and radio staples that were literally inescapable to anyone of my age bracket. 

The crowd at the show was amazing, singing along to almost every song and basically having an amazing time. It was one of those shows that was way more fun than it was good, and it was pretty damn good. The duo’s voices really haven’t lost a thing over the years and it was obvious that they are the consummate showmen. They announced that they have played well over 5000 shows, yet somehow had never played Key West.

I am so glad that we went, it was a total blast and one of the more enjoyable concert experiences we have had in some time. It was actually only one of the fun experiences that we had this week. In what was the final event of the Literary Seminar week that I attended, Pulitzer Prize winning and KWLS workshop faculty member, Richard Russo did a reading and book signing at Books and Books at the Studios of Key West.

Russo with Books and Books staff 

It was a packed event, which began with a private reception in the bookstore attended by workshop participants and KWLS staff and board members. That was followed by an even more crowded reading in the Studios main gallery by Russo.  The author of eight novels, most recently “Everybody’s Fool” and “That Old Cape Magic” two collections of stories, with “Trajectory” published in 2017; and the memoir “Elsewhere”. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel “Empire Falls”, which like “Nobody’s Fool” was adapted to film, in a multiple-award-winning HBO miniseries.

 

The reading was amazing, Russo was funny, charming yet down to earth and relatable and the crowd was enthralled by his personality and his writing as well. He did a book signing afterwards in which the huge line of fans was a testament to his popularity and skill. The completion of that event marked the official finale of an amazing two weeks of literary events that are associated with the literary seminar and I could not have been more pleased with how everything turned out.

Richard Russo and Christine 

Emily and Arlo

Of course there was other stuff going on as well. The “normal” Key West activities which this month includes the annual month long visit by my friends Reverend and Breezy Peyton of Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. They take time off their almost constant touring schedule to spend a month decompressing and fishing in Key West each year and we love getting to hang out with them.

Reverend Peyton 

Once again this year, they invited us and many of their Key West pals over for an amazing meal featuring the bounty of Rev’s masterful fishing here and Breezy’s amazing cooking skills. It is always one of the highlights of our January and the opportunity to hang out and to listen to one of my favorite story teller’s amazing tales of life on the road and other adventures is always appreciated. 

 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/26540/richard-russo