Carmen Rodriguez By Ralph De Palma Born and raised in Key West, Carmen Rodriguez graduated from Key West High School, attended Florida Keys Community College, and graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Her mother, Milly Biegliese, was a singer whose stage name was Milly Kelly. She entertained in New York, singing mostly […]
The Untold Stories Over the past 14 years I have interviewed 205 Key West musicians (and counting). I’ve written three books about them – the Soul of Key West, Volumes 1, 2, & 3 that included photos and very short biographies of over 160 of them. I record all my interviews they usually go for […]
What If …. By Ralph De Palma A while back, former Key West pianist Dave Burns and I were discussing Key West legendary performer Coffee Butler. Both Dave and I lived in Miami during the 60s and 70s when Miami Beach would see major artists, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Guy Lombardo, and […]
After interviewing over 190 Key West musicians, I’ve heard some great stories. I haven’t been able to squeeze many of the short stories into a musicians’ biography or the weekly music column, so I thought I would share a few stories with you this week. Mick’s Caribe Beans Often introduced by Ericson Holt as ‘the […]
Jackie Robinson Inspired In the Spring of 1947, the “great war” was over and our soldiers came back home. A young teenage shortstop at Key West’s then segregated Fredrick Douglas High School read the story of Jackie Robinson. Robinson had broken the color barrier in Major League Baseball, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers and started […]
Commander Moulton and the Historic American Legion Post 168 Located at 803 Emma Street in Bahama Village, the American Legion Post 168 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Commander Nancy Moulton, a self- proclaimed “fix-it” person, is trying the promote the site. It has been termed by the long-time Bahama […]
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 204 musicians in Key West for my Soul of Key West books and My Key West Citizen Music Column. I tried to present interesting […]
What If …. By Ralph De Palma A while back, former Key West pianist Dave Burns and I were discussing Key West legendary performer Coffee Butler. Both Dave and I lived in Miami during the 60s and 70s when Miami Beach would see major artists, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Guy Lombardo, and […]
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. […]
Ray Spence – part of the Key West music gumbo Rayfield Spencer Beazer, born to Elaine and Ralph Beazer, is originally from the Bronx, New York. His father was a huge jazz fan and would always to listen to John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Dave Brubeck with his son. Ray’s father was also a big Doo-Wop […]
