Music is the art of arranging sounds in periodic time so as to create a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

It’s also the vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm. Music can also be when an aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or mixture of sounds are produced example the music of the water falling from a tap in a vessel.

Most of the time music is kept in memory and gig only. If handed down orally, this music may be considered “traditional” or not considered composed by individuals. Different musical traditions have disparate attitudes towards how and where to make changes to the original source. If the music is written down, it is generally in some manner which attempts to gain both what should be heard by fans, and what the artist should do to perform the music.

In most of the parts of the world music is a part of everyday life. Chanting and singing during religious rites and festivals are wonderfully common. Music as a performing art is wonderfully usual among Indians. It has been also among the seventeenth-century New England settlers who used music during their religious observances by chanting psalms in the meeting house as an important communal activity.

By the end of the century psalm singing had become dissonant since worshipers might no longer read the musical patterns in the religious book. The right rendering of tunes was of lesser importance than religious passion so a lot of ministers and musical refreshers, observed the teaching of musical notation to restore order in the community. Regular singing soon gave rise to the development of singing schools and the creation of music for secular entertainment.

The revolutionary war saw a flowering of musical creativity. Supporters of the American cause quite often differ d the words of British songs, such as “Yankee Doodle,” to taunt their adversaries. The immediate post revolutionary cultural climate was one of optimism that Americans might create their personal culture free of English influence.

In the 1850s, the call for an independent American music has been heard again, this time from a composer whose New York(NY) lectures in the early fifties inspired an interest in the development of an American musical language. But the drive for cultural independence fell short.

With the wars came the marches and sentimental tunes that spoke of home, wives, mothers and kids became popular. Composers and entrepreneurs printed a lot of of these. In the second half of the century, a lot of successful American composers had studied in Europe and adopted the romantic style despite the ongoing arguments for an American music.  A lot of men who earned their livelihoods as professors achieved respectability with works that bore considerable resemblance to similar pieces being composed in Europe at the time.

In the end of the century, major orchestras came up in New York. Smaller communities observed performances by Local/Regional bands, which reflected the popular taste for dances, marches, and synchronizing excerpts. The troupes moving throughout the country, performed combined comedic episodes, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, dancing, and minstrel songs performed in black face.

The compact disc – the artists dream.

I have always wondered about this one. If I take out a CD, took away its plastic packaging, took away the paper and actually took away the CD  what do I have?

If an individual said just music, wonderful you would be right.

If you look at things understandably and just sell the music rather than the compact disc, you would reduce the amount of time spent to reproduce the thing, reduce the hours and wages that take to establish one, reduce the amount of money on shipping/ storage/ marketing/ selling to shops.

So the biggest wonder of my time at present is this:

Why do we charge $12 for an album download?

As a side note- my own little gripe Why do we buy ebooks that are double the fee of print books and take less time and effort to produce and procure?

So with all what we know, is it a wonder then why individuals pirate stuff (especially when compact discs degrade/ scratch over time)?

I think the decent folk out there will buy something for what they thought the album is worth. The most famous example is Radiohead who said their fans may buy and download their new album at any price they wish.

It averaged out at $5.

I had respect for Radiohead. They done something diverse, at least they tried to fix a problem that the music business isn’t prepared to tackle properly.

Unfortunately they released the album in the shops as well, fleece your listeners…nice style Radiohead…[growl]

But instead of thinking, wow, this is great, all of us have figured out what individuals are willing to pay, so lets do something about this. Downloading web sites are still provide ing downloads at over $10.

I went over to CD Baby, good basic web site… the majority downloads $12.

And if you want to buy a CD…$12.

Still, I believe that the CD  is going to die.. It has to.

compact disc Baby additionally realise that, and have released HostBaby for artists.

But artists haven’t realised the fact yet.

And neither have record organizations. Assuming that they did then all of their music would be up for download at $5 a shot ( CD  presses, artists, shipping- all gone and prices decrease d). It would not put an end to stealing fully, but it would heavily dent it.

likewise add something else to the download- a bonus pdf, a picture session, a discount for other downloads, a free private members website ( like the ebook industry does).

Nonetheless it would furthermore dent the record shops, and put people out of work in compact disc  presses. But unfortunately it is change. I think people would still buy music compact disc s, but as time passes- this lower s.

On the other hand- how cool would it be to go into a record shop with a flash drive and download an album?

Nonetheless change is needed.

And it is the record organizations fault that we haven’t done anything about this mess yet. Unfortunately they will panic and fully try downloads in the future, but by then it will be too late. Most musicians would have found out about downloading and the record organizations will downsize. Would they be required in the future? I doubt it, can be to organize large concert and tours…but why else would you need one?

Bleak picture, but true…we live in a “now” society that utilises downloads. Only a few years ago all of us never had any real film footage website s. A few years ago there has been no iTunes. A few years ago there has been no Blogs or Podcasts.

Offer compact discs and downloads. But when the time comes, kill the compact disc  and just offer downloads. You’ll be ahead of that compact disc  goal by a mile.

Simple solutions to get yourself known for free…

I read an article in a well known magazine the other day and found that they were advising performers to invest out 100′s in advertising costs to get themselves known. True.

Is there another way?

Well yes, there is. What we have useful to us all is the Web. This excellent medium is so underrated it is unbelieveable.

The key to getting yourself known is to spread yourself all over the Internet. Pretend that the Internet is a slice of bread, a bagel….hmm…yum.

Sorry, stay with me, you need to follow this one. If you bought some really wonderful spread, costing $100 and you only spread one quarter of the bagel (this expensive food does not go far). Now you have only one bite, only one and a random one at that, so you randomly bite into the bagel, more than like ly you will have much less opportunity of being found than if you spent less resources on a similar spread and used all of it, all over the bagel.

Now this is what happens everytime a person logs onto the Web. You have one shot, you’re being targeted roughly by random and too much resources spent in one area is a substantially bad idea. So what do you do?

Well, the primary thing is not to invest any resources if possible. If you have music to distribute then do that. Sign up to all the MP3 hosting websites that you might find, there are so many now on the Internet that they’re free and provide some cool incentives ( prefer unlimited bandwidth, hardrive space and such prefer ). The more you apply to, the more prefer ly that you’re not going to be missed by anyone.

This technique additionally lowers the possibility of your paid web site being shut down, having any failures in the future, or being ranked less in the search engines (with so much competition this is a high possibility).

Phase two, make sure that you have your own web site. On each paid web site put a link back to your own web site, this then stimulates your Public Relations (PR) rate with the search engines and stimulates your link status (roughly: more links in the higher you rate). also you secure free traffic for many years from these web site s.

Make your homepage appealing, provide ing blogs and newsletters, even “guides and DIY articles”. Why? Well once an individual comes to your website and goes away the like lihood of them returning is incredibly low, and then you’ve lost them. This is why the newsletters and blogs are so important, they keep the one-time visitor coming back for check-ups to YOUR website, without them trying to find you again (very unlikly).

One thing that I may never understand when I am searching through MP3 hosting web sites is “why do people give a range of their work on one page?” All fair and well, and much kudos for doing so, but I think that this is a was te of Internet real-estate. Your web site ought to be targeted, your name ought to be targeted. I am into Techno etc, so it’s rare that I will hunt out jazz songs. But this is what I find when I go onto a techno artists web site. My tip would be to call yourself something divergent for each type of that you do. For instance : deejay Harsh for your electronic music, Earthly for your New Age music, The Fields for your Country and Western music…you get the idea.

Having a separate name for each of your styles will then target 2-3 (or however a lot of genres you do) times more visitors- a possible 100-200 % increase in visitor downloads. But again, you would link each web site to each other just in case. You would even make up separate web sites for each genre anyway. Many people in the artist world do this. For instance : Les Rythmes Digitales who made “Jacques your body (make me sweat)”- a cool techno song, and Stuart Price are one of the same. Who is Stuart Price? Madonnas new producer under his real name. The KLF, The Physicians in the Tardis, and The Justified Acients of MuMu (no joke) are all one of the same.

Diversify yourself to get yourself known, apply to all over the place that you could and keep on adding amazing music.

Contemporary media perpetuates all the old styles so that what’s popular now is what was popular 30 years ago. If you are old enough and were around in the 60′s, you’d recall that the 30′s seemed to be an era where the music and styles contrasted greatly with the 60′s. Today in 2008 we hear much of the same that was around in the 70′s as well as all the other eras including now’s contemporary music. This is thanks to the modern day varieties of music media that we have now. might be this surplus of variety is what prompts the “search for meaning in modern music”.

Electronic amplification has made the contemporary sound of electric guitars and drums dominate the sounds of today. PC recording with its click tracks and loops has likewise played a large part in the contemporary sound. The PC software “Band in a Box” and the like lets you build a song with pre-recorded loops and then copyright it as something original. individual ly, as a classically trained pianist and working musician, I don’t like these facets of modern day music.

If you’re a musician, what’s most important is to be creative as an individual whatever it’s you do. Create. Then share what you create. If you make a living at it, this influences how you create, but create just the same. If you just listen to music, you will apparent ly listen to what you want to, and you may find a greater variety to choose from than ever before.

Personally, I have produced 3 CD’s. The 1st one has been original songs produced in a studio. My original premise for it has been to win a lover back to me. Then it became an endeavor to make wonderful recordings of my non-commercial styled songs that likewise involved the new (and married) love in my life. I have made living in music, mostly in academia (community college) and community theater concert and get togethers and marriage s. My other two CD’s are piano solo. One is classical and one is Christmas songs. None are commercial successes, but I make some money from the recordings from downloads all over the world.

Therefore I am trying to make money in other ways. And so I am writing this article!

You may find my recordings at davidstahl.com and cdbaby.com/davidstahl

Music is major part of our everyday life. Music also has a long, complex and captivating history. It can predate language, and most certainly predates the written word. It’s found in every known human culture, both past and present, varying wildly between certain periods and locations on the globe. The music of every culture is influenced by all other aspect of that culture, such as social and economic organization, climate, and access to technology.

The development of human music occurred against the backdrop of natural sounds prefer the lapping of ocean waves, the rippling of river water, the singing of birds and sounds created by other animals. Prehistoric music, more commonly referred to as primitive music, is the name given to all music produced by preliterate cultures, beginning somewhere in  profoundly late geological history.

The prehistoric period is considered to have ended with the creation of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. “Ancient music” is the term given to the music that followed. This music has been produced by numerous early cultures, particularly Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians and citizens of the Muslim world, as well as Asiatic cultures.

Following ancient music, came “early” music which is a exceedingly general term referring to music in the European classical tradition from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, until the end of the Baroque period in the 18th Century. Music within this enormous time span has been extremely diverse, encompassing multiple cultural traditions throughout a expansive  geographic region. What unified these many cultures in the Middle Ages has been the Roman Catholic Church, and its music served as a focal point for music development for the 1st centuries of this period.

The Medieval period (from the 9th to the 14th Centuries) was rich in musical history as attested by the artistic renditions of instruments, writings about music, and other historical references. The only collection of music which has survived from pre-900 AD to the present is the liturgical music of the Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called the Gregorian chants.

Renaissance music followed the medieval era, but the beginning of Renaissance music is not as obvious ly marked as the start of the Renaissance in the other arts, and began, not in Italy, but in northern Europe specifically central France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The invention of the printing press had an immense influence on the dissemination of musical styles and by the 15th century, composers and singers from these Low Countries begin to spread over all of Europe.

Baroque music became quite popular following 1600, and instrumental music became dominant. Although strong religious musical traditions continued, secular music came to the forefront with the development of the sonata, the concert o and concert o grosso. In Baroque music the keyboard, particularly the harpsichord, is the dominant instrument. The three most outstanding composers of this period are J.S. Bach, G. F. Handel and A. Vivaldi.

The early Classical period has been ushered in by the Mannheim School which exerted a profound influence on Joseph Haydn, and through him, on nearly all subsequent European music. Wolfgang Mozart has been the central figure of this period and his phenomenal and varied output defines our perception of the Classical era.

Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were transitional composers who led Europe into the Romantic period with their expansion of the current type of s, forms and even uses of music. During this Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional. By the late 19th century, there was a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestras, and in the role of concert as part of a rapidly increasing urban society. Strauss, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner comprised a compelling group of Romantic composers. A prominent feature of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by figures prefer Dvorak, and Sibelius.

The 20th Century saw a music revolution as radio gained popularity world wide and new media and technologies were created to record, capture, reproduce and hand out music. Because music has been no longer limited to performance clubs and club s, it became possible for music performers to gain fame and fortune quite promptly.

And music became more mobile with the use of headsets, CD  players, and iPods. Music of the 20th Century brought a new freedom and wide  experimentation with styles and forms that challenged the accepted rules of earlier musical periods. Heavy metal music and rap entered the picture and joined hip-hop, jazz, country/western, ballads, folk, acid rock, Christian rock and a variety of other genres to create now’s fascinating world of music.

It’s a safe bet that, since the arrival of cognitive human beings on this earth, music has, in some form had a significant effect on their lives. The first sounds, other than speech, were might produced by hitting something; wood, stone or hide; and ancient peoples must have appreciated the sounds of the world around them; of water, weather and animals; and were the sounds of a rippling stream or a gushing waterfall music to their ears? And when they stood at the seashore did the crashing waves and the suck of the tides move them in some way?

There is something deep within our psyche, which reacts and ‘ remember s’ music. It’s more than probable that sounds relating to music and rhythm came long before sounds relating to communication and speech. Today, this theory may be tested by noting a baby’s reaction to a lullaby as compared to speech. If you are lucky, humming can soothe the most fractious child and even send them to sleep! Music, in the form of rhythm was used by many peoples as a way of sending messages to out of sight recipients; think about the jungle drums of Africa or the Alpine horn, the Aboriginal didgeridoo or the use of bells as a warning of attack.

The days of learning our lessons by rote have, mostly, disappeared. This is because it has, rightly, been recognised that all of us don’t necessarily absorb the content of what all of us repeat over and over again. But, as an guide to memory, music still has its uses. tunes all of us have learnt in childhood may be recalled far later in life than mere words. Music is a well known and much used therapy in illnesses that involve memory loss; Stroke, Alzheimers etc; and not only as a recall guide but furthermore as a re-learning tool. Speech therapists use music extensively when trying to educate stroke victims how to speak again. The rhythm and melody of a familiar tune will a lot of the time ‘trigger’ a positive response, when no amount of visual stimuli has an effect.

And then there is the cohesive quality of music; from the singing of a country’s National Anthem to a football crowds chant; from carol singers to brass bands. Musical participation has been used in every walk of life. The chain gangs of America’s Deep South would use music to get through the day and produce a rhythm to mundane physical labour. Sailors would pull a hawser or’sheet’ in unison while singing a familiar ‘hornpipe’ or reel; The exceptional gospel sounds that poured from the wooden churches of the Southern states black population were a potent community tool to  promote  and celebrate their culture; a lucky offshoot was the inspiration of much of our modern rhythm and blues. Nowadays factories all over the world use ‘piped’ music to soothe the workers; if you’re doing a humdrum task music can make the time go faster.

When we think about it music isn’t just a pleasant pastime that is either passively listened to or actively produced. It has a much deeper, more fundamental purpose. Our reactions to outside events may be completely altered by music. It can make us happy, sad, frightened, elated, thoughtful . . . the list of emotions it engenders are as long as their number. And words are not vital to establish this ambience; for instance, how would silent movies have worked in the absence of the music? Those Keystone Cops in the absence of the frenetic piano plinkity plonk; the doe eyed heroines in the absence of the sobbing strings; the large sweeping epics in the absence of full orchestral back up? They just wouldn’t have worked. Nowadays, with the proliferation of world music, we listen to and enjoy music in many varying languages, in the absence of necessarily understanding a word the singers say; much as opera was once listened to as the fashionable ‘world’ music of its day; just another example of the emotive power of music.

Now,it’s fair to say that music has an innate basis in our evolutionary makeup. all of us have could used it since homo sapiens first walked the earth. Other animals do use sounds in their day to day living (frogs croak, dogs howl, sheep bleat etc.) but, with the possible exception of birds, all of us are the only species to find pleasure in making melody out of sound. We’ve utilised every viable tool, from the human voice to electronic tones, to create ever more varied compositions. Wouldn’t it be intriguing to discover how soon into our evolution the power and beauty of the human voice has been appreciated? As the centuries have passed performers have been, rightly, feted for their skill to move us with song, melody and rhythm. Once performers were revered as priests, interpreting the sounds of the gods. Nowadays all of us are more pragmatic; but all of us still need that harmony in our lives; even if it’s only our mobile phone  ringtone!

Hip-hop took birth as American street culture. Hip-hop culture emerged from 1970s block gatherings (large outdoor gatherings, thrown by owners of expensive stereo equipment) in NY City, just South Bronx. Pioneered by Black Americans, it includes rap music, break dancing, ‘b-boy’ fashion, and a defiant stance.

Amid predictions it would not outlive a season, hip-hop music managed to produce its own race. Anyone who dismisses Hip-hop as rap music does not understand its history and the influence hip-hop has on youth culture. True listeners appreciate that hip-hop is not just about music; it’s a way of life, a language, and a unique perspective that uses music to address racism, oppression, and poverty issues, and transforms the music into a political movement. The aim is to motivate young adults to get active in ways reminiscent of the civil rights movement. Hip-hop narrates the stories of inner city African-Americans trying to live the American dream from the bottom up. It is about the youth culture of New York City taking over the world someday—about dance, art, hurt, love, racial discrimination, broken homes, overcoming adversity, and fulfillment.

Hip-hop includes four key forms of expression: mixing (combining sounds using turntables or other sources), “b-boying” (dancing), graffiti art, and emceeing (a individual who might control the crowd with his lyrics). This culture manifested itself throughout New York(NY) City around the mid-1970s. There’s a message passed down from the godfathers of hip-hop: to earn respect, you must be skilled on the mic, possess the ability to rock a crowd with sheer lyricism, and explain why you were better than the man next door.

Hip-hop music is the vehicle of hip-hop culture and contains “rapping” (superimposed with vocals) by emcees. Owing to this, hip-hop music is on occasion referred to as “rap music,” Nonetheless, those who dismiss hip-hop as rap music do not comprehend its rich history and the influence this type of music has on youth culture.

Hip-hop music is a vehicle used by the singers to address racism, oppression, and poverty issues. It narrates tales of inner city African-Americans living the American dream (through hard work, courage and determination one might achieve prosperity) from the bottom up, and bitterly touches upon racial discrimination, broken homes, and overcoming adversity.

Invented by Jamaican migrant disc jockey Kool Herc in the early 70s in New York(NY) City, it has since then spread its tentacles across the world. Herc shifted from reggae records to funk, rock and disco. Owing to the short percussive breaks, he began extending them using an audio mixer and two records. As the unique style of music became a hit, performers (emcees) began superimposing the music with vocals; initially, they introduced themselves and others in the fans. Later, the rapping became more diverse, incorporating brief rhymes, regularly with a sexual or violent theme, in an attempt to entertain the fans.

In the mid-1970s, hip-hop split into two groups. One focused on getting the crowd dancing, another highlighted rapid-fire rhymes. The 1980s witnessed further diversification in hip-hop; highly metaphoric lyrics rapping over multi-layered beats replaced simple vocals. In the 90s, gangsta rap (glorified outlaw lifestyle) became mainstream. Hip-hop has been soon an integral part of mainstream music, and nearly all the pop songs featured an underlying element of hip-hop.

In the 90s and into the following decade, elements of hip-hop were integrated into diverse type ofs of music: hip-hop soul combined hip-hop and soul music; in the Dominican Republic, a recording by Santi Y Sus Duendes and Lisa M has been coined “Meren-rap,” a fusion of hip-hop and meringue. In Europe, Africa, and Asia, hip-hop has undergone a transition from an underground occurrence to the mainstream market.

Classical music, prefer other forms of classical art, has not as a lot of takers as those of light music. Nonetheless, classical music has its fans too and lots more are falling to its charms. Yet, those who turn to it usually find it rather beyond their understanding and real appreciation. They are charmed by it, but they can’t critically explain why it appeals them. You can’t rationalize its appeal or beauty.

Yet another reason why a large majority of people are not  profoundly comfortable with classical music is its complexity and a sense of distance from the artist. Light music can be freely sung by ordinary performers with whom ordinary listeners may identify easily. It expresses the feelings of ordinary persons in their personal language. Classical music, on the other hand, is rather mysterious and is rendered in diverse styles and it takes years, sometimes a life long time to understand .But its study has its rewards too. The more you study it, the more you enjoy it and the more you find it great and worth the quest and hard work to study it.

The study or appreciation of classical music depends upon your personal taste. A form of music that appeals to you could not appeal to another individual. You could come across experts who could try to influence you by their judgments about the quality of music. You could listen to them, but you ought to not compel yourself to like the music that they like. Or if you come across a much-acclaimed piece of music that you can’t really appreciate, you do not have to blame yourself for not liking it. You could of course try to find out why the particular expert likes a given piece of music. may be, you find some point to learn.

The most vital thing about classical music is to listen to it as much as you can. Classical music CDs are available from a lot of sources. If you’re a student, your college library may have an abundant stock of classical music CD s. You may listen to radio, watch TV, and go to performances and recitals. You may additionally get free downloads from the Web, if you do not want to invest resources.

Key West has always been a hot spot for live music. When tourists finally get to the end of the road following making the long trek down the Keys, it does something to their psyche. Normally respectable citizens of the mainland tend to breathe in the free air of the tropics and start doing some pretty uncharacteristic things – things like drinking rum runners and stripping down to barely perceptible clothes. And they naturally congregate on Duvall Street, where the Local/Regional clubs are happy to contribute to the anything-goes atmosphere. Live music pours out of nearly every bar.

The music leans heavily towards a Jimmy Buffett, island-flavored sound, and you’re sure to hear “Brown-Eyed Girl” at least ten times a night from ten divergent club s. And that is as it ought to be, because everybody is usually in an island kinda mood. But there is much more to be found. You can hear jazz, reggae, hard rock and blues, from places like Rick’s, Sloppy Joe’s, The Bull, La Concha, The Hog’s Breath, and, if you don’t mind walking an extra ten blocks or so, Jimmy Buffett’s own Margaritaville Cafe. What makes the whole scene so appealing is that most of the clubs are open to the outside, and all this music makes a potent gumbo of sound in the humid air as you walk down the street.

Long ago, before there has been ever a road to Key West, most of the town has been populated by pirates, who endorse ed to ‘salvage’ wonderfuls from ships that were wrecked on the reefs because someone had switched the signal lights around. Everybody knew who switched those lights in the first place, of course. But salvaging has been a tempting, lucrative profession in those days. That outlaw spirit still lives in Key West, and it may be heard in the music of performers in the venues and from street performers on nearly every block.

I personal ly got to experience Healthy doses of Key West music every April for 15 years, when I played at Sloppy Joe’s with the duo Faust and Lewis.

We developed our music and comedy act on that famous stage, and wrote gobs of funny tunes about life in the islands. all of us always did the 5-9 PM shift, so after our show there was plenty of time to do the Duvall Crawl and check out the other acts in town. I became a wonderful fan of Hugo Duarte, who was performing at the Hog’s Breath Saloon late one night in early April. It was uncharacteristically cool that night, with the temperature all the way down in the low 60′s, but my wife and I braved the chill to listen to Hugo for over an hour. His original tunes are nearly perfect, and tell wonderful stories about life in the islands, and about ship captains heading somewhere down south.

I likewise got to know Terry Cassidy, who still does after noons at Sloppy Joe’s. He adds a smooth, bluegrass feel to his island music, and his song “Hooked On the easy Life” just about sums up the attitude of the Local s.

Pete and Wayne currently handle the 5-9 shift at Sloppy’s, and you can be sure they’re continuing the “What Me Worry?” attitude down there, with their adult humor and tunes.

There are so a lot of more artists that have made a real splash on the Key West scene. Pat Dailey, the legend of Lake Erie, has been performing in February and March at Sloppy Joe’s for over twenty years. Bill Wharton, The Sauce Boss, one of the finest blues players I’ve ever seen, also makes hot sauce during his shows and serves it up in gumbo to individuals who stay around until the end. He makes regular appearances at Margaritaville. Ben Harrison, who with his wife Helen own Harrison Gallery, is also a renowned singer-songwriter who puts on mini operas about some of the colorful characters in Key West history, including a guy who kept his wife’s body in his parlor for years following she died.

All of us who have performed and written songs about Key West owe a tremendous debt to Shel Silverstein, who lived in Key West until his death a few years ago. Shel wrote a lot of famous songs, including “The Unicorn Song,” and “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” as well as countless award-winning kids’s books, including “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” He generously gave of his time and talents to mentor songwriters that made their way to Key West. I personal ly spent an after noon at his house, and I knew I was truly in the presence of greatness.

I recently did a weekend back at Sloppy Joe’s for the 1st time in four years. You can rest assured that the music and fun continue on, as vibrant as ever. can be it’s the gulf breeze. can be it’s the rum runners. Whatever it is, I hope it goes on forever.