Key West Has A Lot Of Work For A Musician – And No Snow

 

By Ralph De Palma

 

Robert Barton, known as Bubba Lownotes, is an associate member of the Virginia Musicians Mafia here in Key West.  He was born in Richmond, Virginia. His family later moved to Greensboro and then Charlotte, North Carolina. He played the clarinet in grade school, then later the tuba and finally in high school, in 1975, he started playing bass. 

 

 

After graduating, he played with Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts for two years, touring the college circuit throughout the Southeast.  He then formed a duo called Tranquility with his wife playing beach music. Around 1983 they started playing clubs in Marathon and worked their way down to Key West. They settled here like other musicians that had grown weary of touring: Key West had a lot of work and no snow.

 

 

The venues and the stages are noticeably smaller in Key West.  Musicians have to fight for space sometimes.  One thing Bubba noticed when he arrived in Key West was that there are virtually no dressing rooms. When you take a break you’re out mingling with the audience. There is no place to hide.

 

 

Bubba plays with a lot of groups in town.  When he was coming up and was a member of a band, “It was like a girlfriend. You didn’t go play with another band.“ He says “In Key West it’s like musical chairs and when you let someone get up and jam with you, it’s like their auditioning for your job.” 

 

 

Bubba started playing and singing with the Keys Chorale and he was reading music again. “It was like saying hello again to an old friend”. He enjoyed the music and liked hanging with “grownups.” The vocalists in the Chorale read and know music as well if not better than some musicians that he had performed with in Key West. Lately, Bubba has been playing and singing with a gospel group in the Bahama Village Choir. “It’s different. It’s just good, soulful singing.”

 

 

Key West may be the “Bass Players Graveyard.”  In the 1990’s, Bubba subbed for a bass player at Captain Tony’s and the next day the player was found dead on his boat.  Another bass player passed away on stage playing Mustang Sally. Bubba subbed for him. Another bass player, who worked the Pier House, died one morning before a gig. Bubba got a call to sub.  He says he almost hates to answer the phone. 

 

 

Anyone that considers Bubba Lownotes just another musician doesn’t know much about Bubba or music. His peers understand how capable and versatile he really is. Latin, swing, country, blues, rock, makes no difference, Bubba can play it. At a recent gig with the Southernmost Brass, Bubba was filling in for a bass player. The arrangements for the 7 piece Brass can be fairly complex. Bubba showed up an hour early read all the charts tuned up and played like he’d been there forever. It’s not luck or accidental Robert Bubba Lownotes Barton can play.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]