Robert Albury at The Green Parrot, Good God, Y'all!

 Key West's own King of Soul, Robert Albury appears at The Green Parrot Bar  this Friday, July 2nd  with shows  at 5:30 and10 PM and Saturday, July 3rd at 5:30 PM.

 Robert makes you feel thankful for his own energetic style of
soul music, guaranteed to keep you dancing and singing along all night
long.
 Get on the good foot this Friday at The Green Parrot Bar,
your Southernmost Center for Culture at the corner of Whitehead and
 Southard Streets.
For additional information call The Green Parrot at 294-6133.

Spam Allstars Return to Green Parrot

Andrew Yeomanson, a/k/a DJ Le Spam leads the Spam Allstars back to the Parrot for 4th of July weekend

Blending latin, funk, hip hop and dub, The Spam Allstars make their
highly anticipated return to The Green Parrot for two
pelvis-grinding nights, Saturday and Sunday, Juyy 3rd and 4th,
beginning at 10 P.M.
Well known in Miami for their innovative sound, the SpamAllstars
have become the true Miami sound machine, giving South Florida a
premium blend of nostalgic, obscure, and retro sounds which has been
described as retro-Cuban and even as deconstructed rumba.


A self-described descarga or Cuban jam session, DJ Le Spam and the
SpamAllstars are a unique ensemble creating their own niche on the
national music landscape with a prolific recording routine and over
200 show dates a year.

Deftly combining the live performance of his stage mates with a
cornucopia of electronically-evoked samples, DJ Le Spam (Andrew
Yeomanson) projects a distinctly modern voice, resonate of Miami's
very Latin and urban soundtrack.

Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times, Washington
Post, DownBeat, The Village Voice and Newsweek all praised their 2002
album Fucata Live!,and it was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2003.
SpamAllstars were surprised and proud of this achievement considering
that the album had been recorded live to a CD burner during one of
their weekly shows at Hoy Como Ayer in Little Havana.

In 2004 came the opportunity to collaborate and tour with Vida Blues'
Illustrated Band featuring Page McConnell (Phish), Oteil Burbridge
(Allman Brothers Band/Aquarium Rescue Unit) and Russell Batiste (Funky
Meters). The two bands recorded and toured as a 10-piece ensemble,
with a legendary performance at Bonnaroo. In November of the same year
a DVD of their Fillmore West collaboration was released worldwide.
Spam continues to revisit the far-flung fans picked up along the way,
mounting regular excursions up the Eastern Seaboard, west to
California and abroad.

SpamAllstars have appeared on Good Morning America, Mun2's The Roof,
CBS This Morning, NPR's All Things Considered, CBS-4's Making of the
Latin Grammy's, NBC 6's Trendtrackers, and a variety of regional and
international radio programs.

The Green Parrot is Your Southernmost center for Culture of All
Kinds located at the corner of Southard and Whitehead streets. For
more information call 294-6133

When the Booty Band Hits the Stage, Everybody Dances!

Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band blew the doors off the
Green Parrot on Friday and Saturday night.
See the youtube clip here.


Fresh from pulling off a hat-trick of prestigious music awards, namely
The Home Grown Music Awards #1 New Band of the Year Award, The Home
Grown Music Awards Studio Album of the Year, and, last but not least,
fittingly named by The Onion as having one of The Worst Band Names of
the year, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band blew the doors off the
Green Parrot on Friday and Saturday night.

This seven-piece from Asheville, NC mix triumphant horns, laid-back
grooves, and heavy backbeats to encompass many styles of music that
can only be described as one… Bounce Music. The swarms of swaying
bodies at their shows testify to their thick thump and boundless
energy. The Booty Band cuts to the core of what great live music is
all about: having fun and feeling good. Their energy is contagious and
instantly transforms the average night out into an evening to
remember. They're quickly becoming the hottest new band on the
jam/funk circuit, adding colorful costumes and an interactive stage
personality to make everyone in the room feel right at home. They are
the Booty Band, and they like to put the Live back into Live music!

Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band at The Green Parrot Bar in Key West

Father's Day Photos I Was Looking For...

This is really the Father's Day photo. or photos rather, that I was looking for yesterday.

They were on my fridge for a very, very,  long time. 

Always, it seemed, so I just assumed they would be there yesterday, when I needed them.
But they were not.

I'm thinking we're both about 22.

"Yo Mama's Big fat Booty Band" to Funk Up The Green Parrot

Award-Winning "Yo Mama's Big fat Booty Band" to Funk Up The Green
Parrot: When the Booty Band hits the stage, everybody dances!

Fresh from pulling off a hat-trick of prestigious music awards, namely
The Home Grown Music Awards #1 New Band of the Year Award, The Home
Grown Music Awards Studio Album of the Year, and, last but not least,
fittingly named by The Onion as having one of The Worst Band Names of
the year, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band is poised to blow the doors off the
Green Parrot on Friday and Saturday night, June 25th and 26th, with shows at 5:30 and 10 P.M.
This seven-piece from Asheville, NC mix triumphant horns, laid-back
grooves, and heavy backbeats to encompass many styles of music that
can only be described as one… Bounce Music. The swarms of swaying
bodies at their shows testify to their thick thump and boundless
energy. The Booty Band cuts to the core of what great live music is
all about: having fun and feeling good. Their energy is contagious and
instantly transforms the average night out into an evening to
remember. They're quickly becoming the hottest new band on the
jam/funk circuit, adding colorful costumes and an interactive stage
personality to make everyone in the room feel right at home. They are
the Booty Band, and they like to put the Live back into Live music!
*For the latter half of June, the Booty Band will be down in Florida recording their new album with DJ Le Spam in his studio in Miami. This will be the first studio album since 2007’s “Now You Know” was released. It will include newest Booty Band members Lee Allen on drums and Mary Frances on vocals and keys from the band Eymarel.Much of the album will be recorded right to tape (reel to reel) to utilize some of the ol’ school recording techniques. The band expects a late Fall/early Winter release.

The Green Parrot Bar is your Southernmost Center for Booty-Smooching of All
Kinds, at the corner
of Whitehead and Southard Streets. For additional information call The
GreenParrot at 294-6133.

LOWELL, MASS

As a kind of footnote, here's a Billy Collins' poem I'm fond of that kind of reminds me of a lot of dads, including mine.

LOWELL, MASS.

Kerouac was born in the same town
as my father, but my father never
had time to write On The Road

let alone drive around the country
in circles.

He wrote notes for the kitchen table
and a novel of checks
and a few speeches to lullaby
businessmen after a fat lunch

and some of his writing is within
me for I house catalogues of jokes
and handbooks of advice
on horses, snow tires, women,

along with some short stories
about the deadbeats at the office,
but he was quicker to pick up
a telephone than a pen.

Like Jack, he took a drink but
beatific to him meant the Virgin Mary.

He called jazz jungle music
and he would have told Neal Cassady
to let him off at the next light.

Victory HopDevil, Score One For The Home Team

Victory Hopdevil Pale Ale is the newest addition to The Green Parrot stable of draft beers.

 What did it replace you ask? 

 The British Royal Navy ship HMS Manchester  has weighed anchor after a week in port here, but not before our key west soccer team edged their ship's team nine-zip, and then in the World Cup first round the American team beat England 1-1,  and not to bring any measure of jingoism into our bill of fare or equate this switch in beers with the "Freedom Fries" brouhaha of a few years back, but  with BP's cavalier  attitude of late it seemed the time was right to give the Newcastle Brown Ale a rest and score one for the home team.  

That said, since its 1996 beginnings in an old Pepperidge Farm bakery in Downington, Pennsylvania, Victory Brewing has earned a rabid following with brews such as the silky, low-alcohol Donnybrook Stout, the aromatic HopDevil IPA, and the Prima Pils.

Here's a what some contributors to the BeerAdvocate had to say about it and here's the Victory web page.

Parrot Harley

Complicated Life

cebar.AVI

Paul Cebar's Tomorrow Sound: Classic Soul Meets Afro-Funk

Well known for shaking up the Green Parrot Bar's stage, Paul Cebar's Tomorrow Sound. (formerly Paul Cebar and
the Milwaukeeans) return to the Parrot for an unprecedented three pelvis-grinding days and nights
with shows at 5:30 and 10 PM on Friday and Saturday, June 11th and 12th and 5:30 P.M. on
Sunday, June 13th.
Cebar's long-awaited return to The Green Parrot is sure to be one of the year's highlights as Cebar cranks out his mix of "classic soul meets Afro-Latin funk".
Says Cebar, "My departure has always been funk and soul oriented, with African and Latin aspects." But Cebar now feels he is making some of the most vital music of his career that embraces hip-hop, reggae and old-school soul. Mike Joyce of The Washington Post describes Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound best: "Colorfully garbed champions of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-pop, and conjunto music, as well as the sounds of New Orleans, Motown, Memphis, New York and, yes, Milwaukee..." The Village Voice says of Cebar,"Some regionalists are dreamers, and while this group of rhythm rounders is situated in Wisconsin, their hearts are somewhere in the fifth ward of New Orleans. They put a lively spin on all sorts of American strains, from second-line funk to zydeco and they do it with a load of whimsy." At heart, Cebar is a musicologist who unearths obscure nuggets that he can't resist playing, complete with twists culled from all the other great stuff he's found. Touring continually with Bob Jennings on organ and horns, Drummer Reggie Bordeaux, Bassist Patrick Patterson ,and Percussionist Romero Beverly, Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound is an endangered strain of fortified, intensified, fully jacked-up, roaring and exceedingly personal music-making from a singular Midwestern master.

Motor City Josh cover Jimmy Martin's Freeborn Man at The Green Parrot

American Craft Beer Week, May 17-23, 2010

Check out The South Florida Beer Blog for a list of South Florida events  celebrating American Craft Beer Week.



The Green Parrot's draft beer list, as presented so invitingly here by bartender alumni Eric Bissel, 

while still interesting,  by virtue of  our geography and demographics,  of necessity remained fairly mainstream.  I can remember over the years various purveyors promising kegs of Flying Dog, Fat Tire, and Magic Hat to name a few, but deliveries were sporadic at best and layovers in sweltering miami warehouses and sun-drenched trips down the keys in  un-refrigerated  trucks ultimately made the concept untenable for draft beer. 

Then we made  a beachhead of sorts about a year ago  when  Gold Coast Distributers paired the dependable delivery of Sierra Nevada product with an eye on quality control. Beginning with their most popular beer, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and recently added one of Sierra's seasonal brews, Summerfest, a pilsner-style lager.

As a measure of their success,  I recently learned from the Sierra national reps that The Parrot is  #1 Sierra Nevada sales in Monroe County. 

photo credit Landon Bradbary

I know I've done my share to claw our way to the top.

Our next step into the Craft Beer arena came when south Florida's Fresh Beer Distributers, a.k.a. Brown Distributers, expanded into our market. 

Looking for a new draft beer entry we immediately zeroed in on the Lewes, Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewery and selected from their stable of craft beers their flagship Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA,  a powerful east coast style ipa  whose 6% abv  made a quick if not subtle impression on our regulars.

What's next on tap for us?  We need something special to celebrate American Craft Beer Week.

Maybe some Victory Hopdevil Ale? 

Or maybe take another shot at Flying Dog or Magic Hat?