The Ultimate Island Troubadour

The Marco Beach Hotel and Villas opened for business in December 1971 and began as an island focal point and hospitality center for a young and developing Marco Island. No expense was spared to showcase the very best and innovative aspects of a unique tropical paradise, and very soon the appealing brand of a new version of Florida began to entice adventure seekers from everywhere.

During the early winter season of the same year, a young couple from Michigan decided that enough was enough, and after their autumn wedding, Mike and Sally who were still a few years on the younger side of thirty unloaded their bank accounts, packed up their brand-new Volkswagen van, and set out to seek their fortunes in south Florida.

Naples was the first location to explore after days of driving but after looking around near the beach, the young couple found they were looking for something more. Marco and Isles of Capri were next, but there was no place to camp with the beetle bus near the open water. The next choice was simple because it was at the end of a famous road and Sally and Mike decided to head to Key West.

After Halloween in 1971, another young person decided that enough was enough and he too decided to head south and onward to Key West. He was a friend of another young man who also liked to play guitar and sing original songs. The two young musicians were friends because they were both working on a new style of country music that was leading away from the traditional twang and rhinestones and heading toward something entirely different. The troubadours were looking for a new kind of music that was to find inspiration in tales of the tropics, big oceans, and palm trees.

When young Jim and his guitar found Key West during that very special November, The Marco Beach Hotel and Villas were getting ready for a grand opening only eighty miles away.

Meanwhile, during the same promising November, Mike and Sally rolled onto Stock Island and then into Key West with their Volkswagen bus. On the first night of their arrival, the young Michiganders began to ask around for a good place to have fresh seafood. After asking three different locals and finding the answer was the same, Sally and Mike began walking down a lonely little street with overhanging palms until they saw a house with a big wide porch, open doors, and a bright red neon sign that simply read: “Closed.”

With puzzlement etched on their faces, Mike and Sally climbed the steps and walked into an open house that was obviously a restaurant lit with hurricane lamps. Seeing the bewilderment on their faces, a host who looked like a pirate walked up and said: “Welcome to Pepe’s”

There were no menus and only three items available for dinner. Sally and Mike had the grouper, peas, and a roasted baked potato in aluminum foil. It was the best seafood meal ever imagined. At the next table in the lamplight were Jerry and Jim but they introduced themselves as Jerry Jeff and Jimmy B.

The following day, Mike and Sally began to search for a place to rent. They were both tired of camping in the bus and were ready to begin their tropical adventure. They both needed jobs and they needed a place to live.

After searching the local newspaper and looking at three possible places, an ad stuck out and soon the young couple were walking the docks to where they first met “The Sheriff.” The Sheriff was a ninety-foot wooden shrimp boat that was nudging the docks with every wave that was rolling in. The old girl was peeling paint and had a broken window in the pilothouse, but the shrimp nets were looking new as well as the rigging.

After a twenty-minute inquiry and a new Detroit Diesel began to crank over and rumble in her belly, Sally and Mike knew they had found a new home on The Sheriff and adventurous jobs at the same time.

They bought The Sheriff with cash and moved onboard the same day. Of course, Sally and Mike knew nothing about shrimping and next to nothing about any kind of boat, but they were willing to learn and spent the next few weeks watching other shrimpers and learning how their new floating home could provide a profitable living.

After Valentine’s Day was finished along with St. Patrick’s Day, Mike and Sally were cruising up to the docks loaded with shrimp as Jimmy B. was walking the streets of Key West with a guitar on his shoulder and singing for his supper.

When Sally and Mike, in from a long haul of shrimping, began to find their land legs again, they would hear Jimmy B singing in many of the restaurants and bars. The melodies were new and always captivating, and the lyrics told stories of the islands and the people of the tropics. There was magic in the tunes that were so unique.

After the first winter season was over and springtime began to lean into the hot tropics of summer, Mike and Sally and their favorite wandering Key West troubadour that was Jimmy B began to blend into an island that was changing but still smoldering with the hauntings of Ernst Hemingway. The amazingly talented scribe who was always waiting in the shadows with the image of an old man and the sea. A bearded man with a pirate’s smile who was holding a daiquiri in one hand and a Thompson submachine gun in the other.

There can be little doubt that the Beach Boys and Girls from everywhere and all the mariners that have been captivated by the siren’s song of the sea will always sing along with The Ultimate Island Troubadour. A singer and songwriter that turned a lifestyle into music, and music into a lifestyle. Long live the legacy of Jimmy Buffett and the Sallys and Mikes who were fortunate enough to watch and hear it happen. Parrot Heads forever!