Always smiling on the inside
Bob Boyd “Always smiling on the inside”
Smilin Bob at a recent gig at Higgs Beach/Salute. I got him to smile.
From the upstate hills of Rochester, New York, Bob Boyd was born into a family of musicians. His father was a piano player and conductor. Bob played piano while growing up, graduating from high school in 1976 and studied music at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.
He left college early and formed a band called Flash, playing piano, with a goal of ending up in warm Florida. Flash was a show band and their first tour was the “great white North”. They went as far north as Thief River Falls, Minnesota when the temperature was -20F. They had to buy a heater to warm the the oil pan of band’s bus. From there to Sioux Falls, North Dakota, then Indiana, and finally, they got a month long gig in Englewood, Florida in 1986 on the Intracoastal Waterway . They made their way down to Key West playing at the Pier House that same year.
Their three-week Pier House gig was extended. Afterwards, most of the band members went back north but Bob and the band’s vocalist stayed. The Pier House food and beverage manager asked them if they wanted to perform on the beach. For the next 38 years, Bob played gigs all over town. In the late 80s, Bob remembers playing 53 gigs in one month. It provided the down payment on his house on Sugarloaf Key.
He met Bill Blue and began playing at the Full Moon Saloon. They recorded an album, Live at the Full Moon Saloon. It was the Key West 80s when smugglers ruled. They performed a number of private parties and had been paid hundreds in cash, usually and mostly unknowingly from the smuggling trade. The audience at the Full Moon Saloon was usually the same folks all the time and the band would often play until 3:00 am. Bob said it was a safe space with smugglers on one side of the bar and DEA officers on the other side. He continued playing keyboard for Bill Blue and the Nervous Guys for over two decades.
He can Play!
Skipper Kripitz had a band called Catavae which included Keith Ricks and Richard Tazwell. Richard wanted to leave town for the summer so Bob replaced him. Bob and Keith Ricks became great friends, later forming their own band, One World and performed all over the lower Keys. They quickly became very popular playing large private and corporate events at the Casa Marina and Hyatt. They were included in the wedding scene, along with legendary guitarists Wayne Kramer (MC5), on the 1989 production of the James Bond film, License to Kill.
In 1991, One World recorded two albums, both titled Island Favorites. The first was recorded at Private Ear Studio by Dan Simpson. They used Jimmy Buffett’s Shrimpboat Sound Studio to record their second album. They recorded and released their third album, Back to the Islands, and became very successful. They went on to produce a total six albums, selling close to 100,000 CDs from Key West to Maine. They included a children’s album and a Christmas album.
Meanwhile, Bob continued writing and recording commercial jingles for at least nine different Key West businesses. Between the gigs, recordings, commercial jingles, and albums sales, they made very good money but nothing lasts forever. The CD sales began to decline, the gigs were not as much fun, and the reduced revenue forced Keith and Bob to look at other income sources in the late 90s.
The owner of Mangrove Mama’s (MM 20) would smoke fish for his restaurant and Bob began making smoked fish dip for gatherings and holidays. Bob started selling smoked fish dip to Conch Republic Seafood and other Key West restaurants. While playing pool with a friend, his buddy suggested naming the new business, Smilin’ Bob’s Smoked Fish Dip, a sarcasm as Bob hardly ever smiled. Bob says he’s always smiling on the inside. He would grow this business to eventually smoke 900 lbs. of fish a day, seven days a week. He was selling smoked fish to Publix and thousands of other locations. He sold the business several years ago to Lakeview Farms.
More typical expression of Smilin Bob Boyd.
When Bob first arrived in Key West thirty-eight years ago, it was a dream to be in a town full of artists, writers, and other amazing creative people. He remembers hanging out with Shel Silverstein at the Pier House Beach and at the Chart Room with Mel Fisher and other great musicians and artists. According to Bob, there was a lull in new talent in the Key West music scene during the late 90s but there has been a score of new very talented performers arriving since COVID. According to Smilin Bob Boyd, the future of the Key West music scene is in great hands.
All six albums are available at the One World website: https://oneworldkeywest.com.
Bob is always smilin on the inside.
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