Perfect Jamband" Heavy Pets Return to Green Parrot

“The Heavy Pets return to The Green Parrot on Friday and Saturday, May 24th and 25th with shows at 5:30 and 10 P.M. and on Sunday, May 26th at 5:30 P.M.
The Heavy Pets are an American rock and roll band whose contagious vibe blends rhythm and blues, jazz-funk and reggae fusion with homegrown rock and roll. TheHeavy Pets are known for powerhouse performances spiked with hot electric licks and multi-climactic instrumental solos, as well as for their masterful acoustic acumen.

In 2007, the group became an instant Sirius radio sensation with the release of their acclaimed double-disc debut album, Whale, driven by hit tracks “Operation of Flight” and “Sleep.” Major festival darlings, The Heavy Pets are regulars at Bonnaroo, moe.down, Langerado, New Orleans Backbeat Jazzfest, and their namesake PetZoo, a two-day, multi-band festival that draws hordes of Pets devotees to Bucks County, PA, to feast on the headliners’ live alchemy.
The Heavy Pets seemed to have gotten a makeover. The South Florida jam band sports a new label, a new booking agency and they’ve just released a polished new album with the help of aheavy-weight producer.
But these five guys – guitarists Mike Garulli and Jeff Lloyd, keyboardist Jim Wuest, bassist Justin Carney and drummer Jamie Newitt – are sticking to what has worked for them for the past few years: endless touring, hitting every major city in the Northeast, South and Midwest as well as a host of summer festivals.

"The Pets just might be a perfect jamband" says Dennis Cook, of Jambase.com
"...The greatest jamband to come out of Florida since, well, ever..." "They are an arena ready band without the arena. At its best the band is a living, breathing, force of nature-a whale." said Dan Sweeney of Relix Magazine
In addition to priding themselves on impeccable musicianship, the band
has a staggering catalog of original material,
The HeavyPets combine elegant songwriting with blazing chops, tight vocal
harmonies, and a heavy, danceable backbeat. Don't miss this
opportunity to catch one of South Florida's most dynamic and aspiring
bands.
Reports are that they have been on FIRE lately and are super
pumped for their Key West gig so look for The Pets to blow the roof
off this legendary watering hole when they explode onto The Parrot's
stage this weekend.
The Green Parrot Bar is your Southernmost Center for Culture at
the corner of Whitehead and Southard Streets. For additional
information call The Green Parrot at 294-6133.

"What We're Drinking This Week" is Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale.

The Green Parrot is proud to participate, in our own way, in the celebration of American Craft Beer Week.

So this week as a tip-of-the-hat to American Craft Beer "What We're Drinking This Week" is Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale,  Sweetwater Brewery's most popular brew, a west-coast style pale ale, newly introduced into our neck of the woods this week from their Atlanta-based craft beer palace.

Though, admittedly,  we are less a craft beer bar bar than a dive bar we have have always taken the opportunity to feature a modest selection  of craft beers for  our patrons. 

So while we here at The Parrot realize that the old ways are the good ways and have been "avoiding progress since 1890" we are at the same time aware that our customers are nothing if not epicureans and astute observers of what's going on in the ever-expanding craft-beer universe

Though our taps number a mere even-dozen we have kept Dogfish Head 60 Minute as a permanent resident for the past few years and seem to manage to always have a tap available for a variety of craft/specialty beers to rotate through (lately it's been Angry Orchard Cider). 

In the past we have hosted, with noticeable customer approval, craft beers such as Victory Hop Devil, Bell's Oberan and Bell's Two hearted to name just a few. 

Poised to swim upstream from our walk-in, to your glass, is our newly-arrived Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale

Let's not forget that for the first time ever, American Craft Beer Week (ACBW) will be commemorated by a simultaneous nationwide toast. At 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Thursday, May 16, small brewers and craft beer lovers across the country will raise a glass of their favorite craft brewed beer. So please feel free to join us in hoisting one as a salute to those who have made their passion of brewing craft beers the source of such great pleasure for all of us beer lovers here at The Green Parrot, and everywhere. 

Hats off, and bottoms up!

As a footnote to the arrival of Sweetwtater 420 in our neighborhood, I'd love to plan a visit to their neighborhood to check out something else we have in common besides a fine pint, namely,their fine taste in music. Check out Sweetwater 420 Fest.

Juno What? Brings 70-80's-Inspired Funk Disco Electronica to Parrot

Juno What?, winner of our most whimsical band name contest brings their "illuminated madness" to our stage for the first time with shows at 10 PM on Saturday, May 19th and 5:30 Pm on Sunday, May 20th. 

Juno What?! is America’s newest contribution to the late 70's-early 80's-inspired, high energy, funk-disco, synth bass, electronica genre.

Formed in late 2009, Juno What?! has quickly become the leading practitioners of high energy, live electro-funk and disco booty-jams. Hailing from Denver Colorado, they are now bringing their shameless dance party to stages across the country. Catalyzing dance floors into sonic landscapes, the band has ignited a devoted following by providing raw, electrifying shows which are devoid of the aimless wanderings of the lesser jam community.

Their sound is ahead of its time yet still rooted in the foundation of early- 80’s electro dance grooves. Featuring the soulful talkbox vocals of both Joey Porter and Steve Watkins and the hard hitting backbeat of Dave Watts, it is easy to see that this is a musical force to be reckoned with. See a video here.

Green Parrot Bar Named one of The Top Bars in Florida, Doubles-Down as Top Live Music Venue in Florida, Strives for Hat-Trick

The Green Parrot Bar figured twice in a flurry of top ten awards issued by The Guardian recently, First was our mention as one of the Top Ten Bars in Florida, then a day or two later we were doubly honored to see our name appear as one of the Top Ten Live Music Venues in Florida as well. 

Speaking for myself and my partner Pat Croce I'd like to say how truly honored we are, and how pleased the hard work of the many people involved hasn’t gone unnoticed. It's always flattering to find out we've been on somebody's radar in such a positive way.

To give credit where credit is due it must be said that we were only able to achieve this recognition because of our great Green Parrot staff and Green Parrot patrons;  patrons and staff who have continually supported our efforts to make the Parrot what it is:  one of the best bars not just in Florida, but anywhere.

We would like to thank all our staff here for their professionalism, thank the musicians who play here for enriching our lives, and mostly thanks to our patrons who repay us daily with their loyalty and enthusiasm. 

We promise we will continually strive to make the The Green Parrot the best it can be. We are extremely pleased The Guardian has honored us in this way.

 Find the link to The Guardian's The Best Bars in Florida here,

and The Guardian's The Best Live Music Venues in Florida here

Also, as as kind of a footnote, I've included a link to the third part of the Guardian's trifecta of superlatives, one that is based right here in our neighborhood, namely The Best Bars in Key West, from which, oddly enough, The Green Parrot was omitted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/apr/27/top-10-bars-key-west-florida 

So as we continue to thank The Guardian for these wonderful honors it sure would have been cool to go home with the hat-trick. 
Hey, wait'll next year!

"What We're Drinking This Week" is Root Beer Barrels

"What We're Drinking This Week", and frankly, what we've been drinking every week for quite some time is The Green Parrot Root Beer Barrel. It's a proven favorite any time of the year and any time of the day. 

It's our signature drink, a chilled shot of DeKuypers Root Beer Schnapps, nestled in a chilled rocks glass, filled with draft beer right to the top of the shot glass, 

Kristen from New York shows the proper form for downing a barrel

then thrown back, all in one motion and one gulp, so the sweet schapps and the icy beer combine on the palette in a symbiosis one  hopes for when the bartender slides your cocktail of choice across the bar, so, whether  you're just stopping in for a "quick one"... ....or having a group toast to punctuate a celebratory occasion. 

This group is ready to have at it

                            
                                                                Have a Barrel! 
                                                             Here's the recipe:

                                     GREEN PARROT ROOT BEER BARREL

Place an shot glass inside a rocks glass. Fill shot glass with chilled Root Beer Schnapps. Fill surrounding rocks glass with beer, preferably lager, to the rim of shot glass. Drink all-at-once

DeKuypers Root Beer Schnapps is available at the newly-opened Green Parrot Package Store, right next door to the bar at 609 Whitehead St. It's our Special of the week and every purchase of a liter of DeKuypers Root Beer Schnapps this week comes with a half dozen Green Parrot Root Beer Barrel cups with our Mayan Parrot logo imprinted on the side.

Jimbo Mathus: "Like a Cadillac Driving Off a Cliff"

 Jimbo Mathus: A Modern Case of Classic Blues

Jimbo Mathus’ Tri-State Coalition

 Blues guitarist/vocalist James “Jimbo” Mathus brings his latest incarnation, Jimbo Mathus’ Tri-State Coalition, to The Green Parrot for a full weekend of gut-bucket North Mississippi Juke Joint Blues, with shows at 5:30 and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, May 10th and 11th, and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 12th

Jimbo was here last summer and his long-awaited three-day residency was shortened to a one-day-only affair when Hurricane Isaac threatened South Florida. 

But Oh, what a a day, here's what we wrote then:

"...it was .... three scorching sets that combined blistering rock and roll, gut-bucket juke joint delta blues, barroom-weepers that would have George Jones reaching for a Kleenex, Tex Mex two-steppers, and a version of "Who Do You Love" that had not been heard in Key West since George Thorogood duck-walked on top of the bar at Fitzgerald's.
Soundcheck was a jaw-dropping medley that caused one of our more astute music fans to lean over and mention in an obvious reference to the impending weather, "This is the perfect band for this weekend, like a Cadillac driving off a cliff"

Jimbo Mathus' Knockdown South performing for the Parrot's first webcam show in March, 2006

If you've only known Jimbo Mathus for his work as the founder of The Squirrel Nut Zippers and their hyper-ragtime, early jazz and blues, you're missing his best work. In place of the Zippers’ tight swing and hot jazz is a loose, woozy houseful of southern sounds that ricochets from swamp blues to hip-swerving soul; from honky-tonk weepers to rollicking, almost Allman Brothers-esque rockers.

In what may be called a modern case of classic blues, Mathus, a devoted fan of Jimmy Rodgers and Charlie Patton, takes the raw power of vintage delta sounds and gives it a completely contemporary and fresh lyrical direction and sensibility. To this sensibility to blues, add Mathus’ prowess as a musician.

Tri-State Coalition, drawing on gospel, R&B, and juke joint blues, brings to the stage a primal groove with feral lyrics. Mathus promises a "ritualistic workout that keeps the booty moving."

He recently reteamed with Luther Dickinson and Alvin Youngblood Hart to create the South Memphis String Band, whose first release, Home Sweet Home, is nominated for a Blues Music Award (formerly known as the Handy Awards).

 He also collaborated with Luther Dickinson and The Sons of Mudboy on Onward & Upward (2009), Grammy Awards nominated for Best Folk Performance in 2011; the album was the recipient of high praise from Rolling Stone magazine:

(This Rolling Stone talking here remember)

"Jimbo Mathus is a rising-star powerhouse that feeds the soul. 

His latest band, The Tri-State Coalition, features solid talent cut from the same Delta cloth. Mathus describes Tri-State’s sound as “...a true Southern amalgam of blues, white country, soul and rock‐n roll. 

As Luther Dickinson would say, ‘If you don’t like this, there is seriously something wrong with you’.”

Larry Baeder and Friends to Offer Tribute, Propose Toast to Robert Johnson

Larry Baeder, Chief Billy Ochoa and Francois Gehin at last year's tribute

The Green Parrot will celebrate the 102nd birthday of the seminal delta bluesman Robert Johnson on Wednesday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m. The Tribute, hosted by Larry Baeder, who’ll be accompanied by guitarist Bill Blue, drummer Richard Crooks and bassist Francois Gehin, will include several Key West musicians offering renditions of Robert Johnson songs.

Dogfish Head Brewery paid tribute to this blues legend by gettin' the hellhounds off his trail and into one of their finely-crafted ales.We've managed to secure a liter of this hard-to-find  specialty brew and have been saving it for this day to toast to the late great Robert JohnsonProduced in a small-quantity-limited run, “Hellhound On My Ale,” is 100% dry-hopped with Centennial Hops with sublime citrus notes courtesy of dried organic lemon peel and flesh added pre-fermentation (a taste-bud tribute to Johnson’s musical mentor, Blind Lemon Jefferson). 

Green Parrot Robert Johnson Mural                                                  

 Robert Johnson died at 27 in August 1938—an itinerant blues musician in the Mississippi Delta whose passing merited scant notice locally, much less worldwide. He left a sparse recorded history of 29 songs, and only a half-dozen scratchy 78-rpm discs were released during his lifetime. He has since become known as the King of the Delta Blues Singers, his music expanding in influence to the point that rock stars of the greatest magnitude – the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers – all sing his praise and have recorded his songs.

Thousands of music fans, who’ve come to love Johnson's music as played by their rock and blues heroes have bought into the Faustian mythology that surrounds his short life and strange death. According to the myth,
  Johnson obtained his amazing guitar skills by selling his soul to the Devil.

Last year's birthday cake

When I picked up his cake at Publix last year and I mentioned 101 years old, clerks and customers responded with "101, God Bless Him! 

I did not have the heart to tell them he had been dead for nearly 75 years, let alone that he had sold his soul to the devil, had hellhounds on his trail and was eventually poisened by a cuckolded husband in a juke joint.

The hellhounds he sang about so hauntingly had caught up with him and he was dead, leaving a 29-song catalogue to which countless bluesmen, rock legends and wannabe bar bands have returned ever since for inspiration. 

What We're Drinking This Week

What We're Drinking This Week

The main ingredient of  "What We're Drinking This Week" resides high on the bourbon shelf of The Green Parrot Liquor Store
and comes in a distinctive flask, but more than just a distinguishable bottle, this bourbon is the only bourbon in the world that is distilled solely in copper pot stills.

If you haven't guessed already, this being Kentucky Derby Weekend, "What We're Drinking This Week" is a Woodford Reserve Mint Julep.


In a contract arrangement with Churchill Downs, Woodford Reserve is the "official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby" and is used in a $1000 mint julep cocktail that is sold to patrons on Derby Day to benefit retired thoroughbreds.
Although Woodford Reserve is Derby's "official bourbon",  its sister brand Early Times is the "official drink" and is featured in the more moderately priced juleps served at the event.

Woodford Reserve is a

 small batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey rather than a single barrel spirit, meaning several barrels are tapped and carefully blended together to find the ideal Woodford flavor profile. It is distilled in Woodford County in central Kentucky and each bottle is numbered with a batch number and bottle number and sits on the shelf in either its unmistakable flask-shaped bottle, or the Master's Collection bottle, which strongly resembles the trademark copper stills from which it is born and bred.

See the Woodford Reserve Mint Julep recipe recipe here. 

You can either buy a specially-priced bottle 

at The Green Parrot Liquor Store right next door to the bar and have your own Derby Day Party or stop in the Parrot on Saturday and have us craft one for you to enjoy while you watch the race with us.

Green Parrot Ukulele Orchestra Concert, Saturday, April 27th, 2013

The Green Parrot Ukulele Orchestra tunes up in a temporary orchestra pit on the front porch of The Green Parrot Liquor Store, not a bad spot for pickin' anytime!

Two ukuleles on display, generously donated by Grateful Guitar,  to be raffled off to benefit the Bahama Village Music Program. Next to the ukes,  a newly-minted Green Parrot ukulele orchetra T-shirt, now on sale next door in the Green Parrot gift shop.

The room fills up early for this much-anticipated show and raffle ticket sales are brisk.

The show under way, full house and extraordinary music.

The Bahama Village Music Program keeps hawking tickets for their cause.

Grateful Guitar sets up shops as usual, showing ukes, offering instruction.

Terri and Rob,  old, dear friends from Drexel Hill.

Madame Ooh La La hopes Katchen has sold her the winning ticket.

Justin hopes the same thing.

As does everyone.

The party is in full swing. 

One of the two Uke winners Brian Harrison and Bahama Village Program Director Katchen

Donated Ukes Now on Display at Green Parrot Liquor Store: Win a Uke, Change Your Life.

This beautiful KALA ukulele, hand painted by Haitian artist Jean Paul, is one of two ukes donated by The Grateful Guitar in Duval Square and will be part of a raffle held tomorrow, April 27th,  at 5:30  as part of The Green Parrot Ukulele Association Concert.

 Proceeds from he raffle will benefit The Bahama Village Music Program and help them to purchase ukuleles for students and eventually  set up a ukulele orchestra of their own.

The ukuleles are on display, and tickets can be purchased, at The Green Parrot Liquor store at 609 Whitehead St, right next door to The Green Parrot.

Tickets are only a dollar apiece, so come take a chance (or five or six) and support a great local organization. And, you may win a ukulele and change your life.

"What We're Drinking This Week"

"Three ingredients is a cocktail. Two ingredients is an emergency"-Peggy Olson on Mad Men

In a tropical-drink world overrun with tiny umbrellas, excessive garnishes, too many splashes of Grenadine and swirls of Blue Curacao here's what we consider to be perhaps the ultimate in simple cocktails, the Sailor Jerry two-ingredient rum and pineapple.

Pineapple, that most accessible of tropical fruit juice coupled with smooth, aromatic Cruzan-distilled , 92 proof  Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum in a tall zombie glass packed with ice, can instantly transport you to some wide, shady veranda, a sun-drenched beach or Honolulu dive-bar.... or, maybe just grease the wheels to ease you into a seat under a Parrot ceiling fan for a Friday soundcheck. 

In any case, as a homage to our Green Parrot Ukulele Orchestra Show on Saturday and a tip of the hat to all-things-Hawaiian,  

 "What We're Drinking This Week"

is Sailor Jerry & Pineapple

Recipe: Take a 10 oz zombie glass, pack it with a lot of ice,  add 1.5 oz Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, fill w/ pineapple juice, serve; no floats, no garnish, no limes.

You can belly up to the bar and order one of these tailor-made by one of our seasoned-staff,  or drop in next door to the newly-minted Green Parrot Liquor Store and grab a liter of  this week's sale-priced Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, a few cans of Dole Pineapple juice, a free bag of Green Parrot Bar Ice (yes, bar ice makes a difference and it's free this week with every liter of Sailor Jerry), and  have your own Adventure in Paradise at home"

Ukulele Raffle Saturday, April 27th to Benefit Bahama Village Music Program

As part of the upcoming Green Parrot Ukulele Association's Orchestral debut on Saturday, April 27th at 5:30 PM, Daryl Brooke of The Grateful Guitar has donated two ukuleles from their fine selection of instruments at their Duval Square store that will be raffled off at Saturday afternoon's show.

All proceeds will go towards the purchase of ukuleles for newly-formed ukulele classes being offered by the Bahama Village Music Program, with a goal of eventually forming their own ukulele orchestra.

The donated ukuleles to be raffled on Saturday will be on display all week at The Green Parrot all with tickets for the raffle available as well.

Remember, as always to bring your ukulele along for the Saturday afternoon show and plan to join in the play-along, follow-along chord sheets,as well as instruction for beginners will be available from seasoned members of The Green Parrot Ukulele Association.

An Homage to Records and Rogues on National Record Store Day

Today record shops across the country observed the seventh annual nationwide celebration of in-person commerce known as National Record Store Day. Organized by coalitions of independent record stores, many record labels use the occasion to release collectible vinyl, limited-edition CDs and live material.

As a kind of footnote to that blurb:
Pictured above is Records and Rogues, late of Truman Avenue here in Key West, Marty and Dana's Vinyl Emporium, Musicians Exchange, Band Clearing House and sometimes-Green Room for Danny Simpson and Melody Cooper's Private Ear Studio, around back on Watson St.

Pictured here in an archival photo from the early eighties in front of Records and Rogues is Proprietor of Simpson Sound, Danny Simpson *(with fiddle) flanked by Survivors Quint Lange and Woody Allen

In addition to the large selection of LP's from popular genres, for those willing to mine the stacks there were dozens of hard-to-find collector's items, many not even released in the U.S. In addition to a strong local following lured by the thrift aspect as well as the variety, I recall many visiting bands, Paul Cebar in particular, high-tailing it over there the first chance they got to see what may have come in since their last Key West gig, and shoot the shit with the boys.

All this got me thinking about some of the vinyl I've been hoarding, so I pulled a dozen or so LP's off the top of the pile I have stashed in the back bedroom and spread them out on the kitchen counter in no particular order, chronological or otherwise.

Top row, left to right, is The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Amazing Rhytmn Aces To Stuffed to Jump, A Dave Brubeck Greatest Hits, Peter, Paul and Mary Album 1700.

Second Row, Blonde on Blonde and On The Threshold of a Dream, Neil Diamond (ouch) anda British Robert Johnson Collection.

Third Row: Spam Allstars(a new release), Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking, David Bromberg's Reckless Abandon, and Buffy St. Marie
Pictured above is a photo DJ LeSpam's turntable taken during one of his Spam Allstars gigs at The Parrot.
Pictured below is Andrew, DJ LeSpam, with his extensive vinyl collection behind him.



Saturday, April 16th is National Record Store DaySpokesperson Ozzy Osborne's comments here
Here's Time magazine's list of the ten best record stores in the U.S.

Record lovers and stores across South Florida are reveling on national Record Store Day, the day when record stores celebrate their existence and offer exclusive and special-edition vinyl albums for sale.
The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived by Chris Brown, and was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.
Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances.
Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.
Like book stores, record stores are suffering drops in sales as consumers move to new technologies. But new technology doesn’t always mean the best technology. An album on MP3 may not sound as good as one from a record, given that the record is in tip top condition.
But Florida music lovers rejoice, there are still a number of record stores out there. And some will be offering special album releases from the Flaming Lips, White Stripes, Nirvana, Big Star and Beastie Boys, according to USA Today.

Here are some of the record stores in South Florida that are participating in Record Store Day:
Yesterday and Today Store in Miami
Sweat Records in Miami
Yesterday and Today Records in Miami
Uncle Sam’s in Miami Beach
Selected Records In Miami
Radio-Active Records in Fort Lauderdale
Kelly’s Klassics in Ft. Lauderdale
VP Records Retail in Miramar
We-Got-The-Beats in Oakland Park
Music Movies and More in West Palm Beach

Some more of my vinyl.