The Shanty Hounds
Chris Rehm and Dani Hoy – The Shanty Hounds
Chris Rehm grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus, a small town in New Jersey. He started performing in the eighth grade with the grammar school band. They didn’t have a vocalist so Chris jumped in and started singing the Rolling Stone’s “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. After high school, he attended Ramapo Community College, studying Music Theory.
Chris lived in Miami for twenty-five years before moving to Key West in 2008. He has been a musician and songwriter for nearly 40 years. Chris is one of only three Key West musicians regularly invited by BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) to the Key West Songwriters Festival. According to Chris, Key West exudes creative energy and an inspiring musical environment.
Rehm published Key West Chris (2016), a CD that includes eighteen Key West musicians, All the Best From Key West (2019), and Trimaran (2021 and three singles “Green Turtle Cay”, “Manning”, and “Sail Him Home”. He is also an author and has published four books: Bar Stories, about things seen over his years in Key West and Time Traveler, books 1-3 about the time travels of a Key West bartender.
Dani Hoy was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in the southeast part of Pennsylvania. Both her father and brothers played music and performed. She picked up the guitar at age 12. She was an active member of school choirs and musical plays while in high school. Dani studied art at the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design in Lancaster, PA and completed her degree at Lebanon Valley College in 1997.
She started performing in 2009. After her performance at the 2010 Parrot Head Convention Spring Swing in Wildwood, New Jersey, a fan asked if she had any CDs – in 2012, she released TropiGal. Since then, she has produced two more CDs – Songs of Love & the Ocean (2013) and At the End of a Long Road (2016).
Dani’s first intro to Key West was the 2012 Howard Livingston’s fan event, Meet Me in the Keys. She met Chris Rehm at the Smokin’ Tuna during that event. It was love and music at first sight and she started coming down regularly. Later, she and Chris moved into a 460 sq.ft. bungalow on Thomas Street in Bahama Village that they named “Conch Rock Shanty”.
Friend and fellow musician David Solinski (aka: Red Dawg) suggested, “We should start a band.” Chris told him that neither he nor Dani knew any of each other’s music, and Red Dawg would respond, “We should start a band.” After a longer set of similar circumstances, with the same response from Red Dawg, they decided to start a band.
At the time, Chris had two beautiful whippet dogs and they considered using them in the band logo but Dani came up with the name, The Shanty Hounds. They have been together ever since performing over 300 gigs annually. Thanks, Red Dawg.
The Shanty Hounds have written and released some really good “Keys” music over the years. One humorous tune was titled “On Dildo Key”, special credit to Bubba Lownotes who played both sousaphone (tuba) and upright bass on the song. Chris wrote a tribute to Green Turtle Cay, Key West’s sister city in the Bahamas. It was devastated by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the people of Key West responded generously.
The Shanty Hounds were performing on stage after Hurricane Irma at Two Friends Restaurant performing and their gig was covered by CNN and other major news outlets. They made the national news post Hurricane Irma coverage.
Chris woke September 3, 2023 to the sad news of the passing of Jimmy Buffett. Both he and Dani had tremendous appreciation of Jimmy and love of his music After a long hug consoling each other, Chris grabbed a guitar. After going through months of chemotherapy, Chris Had been unable to write a song all year but the music just came to him, the chords fell into place. While the song carried a sense of loss, it also carried a feeling of celebration of a life well lived. Jimmy was a sailor and many of his songs were about the ocean and the islands he loved so well. The lyrics also fell into place. The beautiful tribute song is titled “Sail Him Home”. Chris plays this song often.
“Sail him home on that schooner from Heaven”
“Sail him home on the seas he knew so well”
“Sail him home, back to the islands”
“Cause being in the islands’ what he loved so well”
In 2019, the Shanty Hounds performed 366 gigs and loved every minute of it. They coordinate music for the Key West Artisan Market, held twice monthly at the parking lot near the Wildlife Center on White Street.
Both Chris and Dani have experienced some health challenges – probably compounded by working hard, doing what they love. Chris in particular has been battling cancer for almost five years and of late has been in and out of the hospital. All I can say is one more day in Key West with these two-wonderful people is an inspiration to all. Like Jimmy, Chris & Dani have loved this island for a long time and Key West loves Chris & Dani.
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