George Chapman ”making memories for people” George Chapman was raised in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He played drums in the school band and, at age 11, started playing guitar. When he was 12 years old, George started playing drums in his guitar teacher’s wedding band but had to hitch a ride to gigs […]
Willie Nelson “Living in the Promised Land” On February 17, 2020, Willie Nelson packed the new Key West Coffee Butler Amphitheater with 4,000 loving fans. It was the largest crowd ever for a Key West concert. For good measure, he did it again in 2023. It was a privilege to hear this legendary performer live. […]
Ron Gregorcic – all over the map About 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio, in a small town called Chardon, young Ron Gregorcic was hanging with a sleepover buddy when they discovered Mötley Crüe (“Looks That Kill”) and were introduced to hard rock on the new Headbangers Ball on MTV at midnight. Until that night, […]
Memories of Margaritaville Everyone remembers that first Jimmy Buffett song. We all thought Jimmy would live forever. The music and those memories will live forever. Since 2012, I have interviewed over 155 musicians in Key West for my Soul of Key West books. I tried to present interesting facts and stories from all of them. […]
Wayne Sorbelli “A woken lion” Wayne Sorbelli grew up in an Italian family in Eastern Pennsylvania’s Poconos area. His father was a drummer in a Beatles tribute band. Early in life, Wayne was amazed people would gather and pay to listen to music and that being in a band could be a job. His grandmother […]
Changing of the Guard – a melting pot of talent During the early years of rock ‘n’ roll, music artists became overnight sensations and made money beyond their wildest dreams. Today, that doesn’t seem to be happen as often. Thankfully, one area of the music business that is alive and well is live music. Live […]
Midsummer Night’s Swing Over the years, the music industry has evolved from vinyl albums, cassette, 8-Track tapes, CDs, Music Channel Videos (MTV), streaming audio music, and now with advent of broadband internet, live video streaming performances. Music streaming websites are capturing more of the market. Music is posted, shared, and, sometimes, downloaded illegally. None of […]
Francois Gehin “… the bass makes me want to dance.” Francois Gehin is from Paris, France. A part of his family was originally from an area in the mountains of Eastern France. Many of them played music, including grandfathers, uncles, and children. Whenever Francois would visit he wanted to join in and play music. They […]
Local restauranteur Richard Hatch was born in Miami and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. He played both violin and standup bass in grade school through high school. He loved music but said he was not a gifted musician and his violin teacher was just plain mean. He attended University of North Carolina and studied political […]
Soul of Key West Volume 1, second edition Now Available An updated version of the original Soul of Key West, Volume I, first released in 2013, has arrived and currently shipping. This was the first book ever written about our amazing Key West music scene. The Soul of Key West is a 104 page anthology […]
