The Fading Sky

July 31, 2019

Donovan Frankenreiter



Martina

Michael & Donovam

The Fading Sky

The summer is quickly slipping away and Kathy and I have been pretty much maintaining a low profile as the hot summer days slide by in Key West. We have spent a few afternoons at the beach or crashing at local hotel pools and trying to escape the oppressive sun. We also have spent more than a few casual evenings enjoying the delightful air-conditioning at the Tropic and Regal cinemas here in town, including catching a couple of our favorite films, “Jaws” and “Gone With The Wind” which were part of the Tropic’s classic film showings.







Joel



Even though there has as usual been a plethora of things going on in town, we have otherwise maintained a fairly low key existence this month with a couple of exceptions that are worthy of sharing. The first was the annual fundraising party for the Key West Sea Turtle Club at the home of our friends Jen and Martina.





Jen







Martina and Jen have been avid supporters of the Key West Sea Turtle Club for years and have hosted many fundraising parties both at their home and out and about around town and Kathy and I always try to support both our friends and the wonderful cause. This year the party was at their home and they had a fantastic silent auction with all sorts of incredible artwork and other items to raise funds.









It was a great little event that raised around $4,000.00 for the sea turtle group. It is always fun visiting their home for any reason as they have quite a little menagerie on their property including a cool turtle pond full of turtles and koi fish, a couple of dogs, some cats, fish and two magnificent birds as well. We often take their elderly dog Spike when they travel and we love them both and were so happy to join so many other friends and supporters to help the organization.

Christina Holmes







That same evening, we had another big event to attend, this time a concert by surf hippie musician Donovan Frankenreiter inside the fort at East Martello. The small intimate, sold-out show only had about 275 attendees and Kathy and I were happy to have VIP seating close to the stage for the show. Christina Holmes opened the show before Frankenreiter and his friend and bassist Matt Grundy quietly took the stage for what they called their “Record Player Tour”.







It was a totally unique experience as they had a literal record player onstage and actually played a record called “Bass and Drum Tracks” that served as the backdrop for the two musicians playing live over it. I am sure that many artists use backing tracks (some more than others) but never before had I ever seen a more obvious and planned use of the technique. The added scratchiness that attempted to make it more obvious that it was arecord playing was a bit much, but overall the technique worked.



Frankenreiter played a 16 song set that included his most popular mellow, surf-vibe hits as well as three completely new songs and was joined onstage by his opener for his encore performance of his song “Free”. I had not previously been a huge fan of Frankenreiter, but the show was fantastic and the setting sublime. I certainly hope that the Art & Historical Society will make more use of this cool little venue.