A musical product of Key West
Meghan Barter “A musical product of Key West”
Medhan Barter stars in Keys Kids production of Annie at 5 years old.
Meghan Barter is a Conch – born and raised in Key West. No wonder she’s a musician. Her family includes parents Mark (another Conch) and Mary Beth Barter, brother Eric, and twins Christopher and Coleen who are seniors at Key West High School.
Meghan performs at the Sunset Pier.
Music has always been a huge part of her life, since age five, studying and learning while growing up in Key West. At age 10, she started playing some Taylor Swift songs and teaching herself guitar. As a young student, she performed in the Keys Kids productions that were funded by the Bahama Village Music Program. Meghan also was a member of the Steel Pan Group in middle school and the school choir. Later, at Key West High School, she formed the first drama club which is still active. All of the many music programs in Key West helped grow her musicality and desire for learning.
One of Meghan’s favorite songs to perform is Prince – Starfish and Coffee.
Guitar is Meghan’s main instrument but she also plays ukulele and piano. She started busking at Mallory Square while in high school. She’s the only one in the family that plays music. They love coming to her performances and handing out her stickers and guitar picks.
Meghan graduated high school in 2019 and went off to a hidden gem of education in Pensacola, the University of West Florida. She studied musical theater, graduating in 2023 with a degree in Fine Arts. After college, her friends were heading to New York, Atlanta, Nashville, and other big cities to discover their careers. Throughout college, she was told it would take at least 10,000 hours of hard work to master any kind of professional career. It would be difficult to break into those large cities and get that much experience. Meghan already knew of the amazing Key West music scene so she decided to come back home.
Meghan thought if there is any place she could perform 10,000 hours, it would be in Key West with its 55 venues for live music and over 17,000 annual live performances not counting weddings and private parties. Besides, Meghan already knew so many good musicians and was inspired by Raven Cooper, Gary Hempsey, Mark King, and others.
Tom Luna introduced Meghan Barter at the 2018 Key West Musicians Festival.
She continues to volunteer for the Key West High School Drama Club and Camp Bravo. She loves helping other young people learn and advance. She performed in the Waterfront Theater musical Into the Woods. Meghan also continues to take guitar lessons with Wayne Sorbelli at Island Guitar, learning and growing.
COVID shutdown cut a large piece out of her first college year. When she returned, she had a voice teacher, Tom Boroco, who asked if she wrote songs. She replied that nothing she wrote was any good. Mr. Boroco started requiring they end her weekly voice lesson with a song that she had written. Now it was homework – and it kept her writing music. They weren’t always good songs but Meghan got better and soon recorded some music at Boroco’s home studio. 
These were very important demos for her future in getting gigs and helped convince current music producer Jeff Dalton to work with her on her new upcoming album.
Meghan grew up with the music of 2010. She loves lyrics and songwriters of old like Carol King, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen. She studied the popular music of Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Mylie Cyrus, and Amy Winehouse. She’s learning new music like the Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac, building her music repertoire which she terms includes, the Island Top 40. One of the coolest songs that Meghan performs regularly is “Starfish and Coffee” by Prince.
Meghan performs at the 2025 Key West Musicians Festival.
Meghan’s first steady gig was September, 2023 at the Southernmost Point Bar. She continued soliciting new work and finally got a call from Captain Tony’s – “Can you be here in an hour?”. The answer, of course, was Yes and she rushed down to play music at the famous venue from 5- 8pm. She began filling in on short notice for other venues and now, has a schedule of steady gigs. She performs at Southernmost Point Bar, Captain Tony’s, Sunset Pier, Sloppy Joe’s, Island Dogs, Pier House, and, occasionally, Schooner Wharf Bar. Meghan says it’s like working in six different offices.
Key West has changed since Meghan was growing up. She spent most of her time in New Town but now most of her time is in Old Town. Meghan loves performing in the Key West Songwriters Festival which she has done for the last two years, and she will be featured with Joe Dallas and the Paradise Big Band at the Tennessee Williams Theater in January 2026. 
To Meghan, the nicest thing about Key West is she always feels like her fellow musicians “have her back.’
Meghan describes herself as a human juke box since people are always telling her what to sing – requests. Human Jukebox is also the name of her first album which was recorded and produced by Jeff Dalton, with all Key West musicians on the recordings. The Release Concert for Human Jukebox will be October 10 at the Key West Theater.
Meghan Barter is a homegrown Key West musician – of course.
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