New Orleans, LA – After three successful years, it becomes much easier to describe our “Six String Music” singer/songwriter festival. It is simply a phlocking from a different point of view. This event is ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC! It's "guys/gals with guitars" struttin' (and strumming) their stuff in the very same city where Jimmy got his start singing on the street corner in the French Quarter for tips.
“All we really need is Six String Music…a song from me to you” wrote Jimmy Buffett. How true this is! This event is not designed to feature the big bands, but rather to allow the featured singer/songwriters to get back to their roots and showcase their original music in more intimate settings. There are very few other places where you can see and hear so many top singer/songwriters all in one place at one time doing what they do best.
Our 3rd annual event was held in August with a dozen invited singer/songwriters coming in from Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas, Wisconsin & California. Presented as a joint venture between the New Orleans Parrot Head Club and the Towns Around Biloxi Parrot Head Club, performances took place at host venues Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Café and two Tropical Isle locations.
The weekend featured solo performances by Scott Kirby, James “Sunny Jim” White, John Frinzi, Wes Loper, Kelly McGuire, Joe Bennett, Jerry Diaz, Jim Hoehn, Bob Karwin, Brent Burns, Chuck Lawson and special guest Keith Sykes. Each of these performers showed off their original music & lyrics to very attentive and appreciative crowds and were afforded the chance to play either some newly written music or some of their lesser played tunes (given they all have their “songs you know by heart” which are usually demanded at their regular performances).
Friday and Saturday evenings culminated in “All-Star Songwriter Circle” performances where three or four of the musicians at a time got up together and either jammed with each other or “swapped” songs in the round. The performances were truly spontaneous (especially as some of the songwriters had only met minutes earlier), and it was hard to tell who was having more fun – the audience or the musicians.
Keith Sykes amused the group with his “Jimmy Bob” rendition of “Margaritaville as sung by Bob Dylan” – a parody that came from his days as a Coral Reefer waiting backstage for the big show with JB. He also engaged the crowd with his “Monkey River Town Girl” and his self-deprecating “Keith Sykes is Sorry” along with the story of the song’s origin. For Friday’s finale, Keith started off a version of “Goodnight, Irene” then said “we’re supposed to be songwriters, so let’s each make up a verse”…then threw it to each of the remaining three performers on stage who all rose to the occasion.
Kelly McGuire got to try out some new music on the crowds as they eagerly await the release of his newest CD this fall. Wes Loper, Bob Karwin and Chuck Lawson are relatively new faces with the local Parrot Heads and were well received, as were long-time favorites Joe Bennett & Jerry Diaz. Radio Margaritaville’s Carson Cooper served as Emcee for the weekend, and Host “Sunny Jim” kept the festivities rolling along with seamless transitions and even took a turn as auctioneer…seems he’s a regular “jack-of-all-trades”.
Besides the live auction, a silent auction and various raffles were held through-out the weekend as fund-raising components to the event. Proceeds are being donated to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, which provides low-cost health care to many working musicians in the city who do not have insurance.
This year’s festival was particularly significant as it fell almost one year to the day on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s unruly visit to our city, with last year’s festival being the last big event in the city literally a week before the storm. “What a difference a week makes” wrote one of the songwriters after last year’s event. But we’re back in business down here now – ready to rock & roll!
“Six String Music” is the perfect event to take place in the city of New Orleans and shows all the signs for continued growth and success for years to come. Plans are already underway for the “4th Annual” so mark your calendars for August 16-19, 2007 for what is sure to be another magical, musical weekend in the “Big Easy”!
Sheila Chimento
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville – New Orleans
(From the Christmas 2006 Edition (Vol. 22 No. 5) of the "Coconut Telegraph")