Singer/Songwriter Kelly McGuire has a lot of personal interests, and most of them seem to begin with a certain letter of the alphabet: Boats. Beaches. Bands. Belize. Buffett (as in Jimmy, not Warren).
But after decades of performing both original and cover music, either solo with his guitar or fronting a group, there’s one thing he’s no longer interested in: Bars. As in performing at them.
“I don’t do them anymore as a rule. I want to control the environment a little bit and not just be background music. People in bars don’t listen to songs they don’t recognize, and songs they recognize they don’t need to listen to,” he says.
“I want my audience to listen to the words and focus on them and respond to them without fighting for attention. It’s why I mostly do house concerts now.”
Or, he adds, an occasional backyard gig. And that’s where he’ll be on July 6 for “A Concert in the Garden” at Dickinson’s historic Cedar Oaks Inn, a Texas-centric bed and breakfast co-owned by Jeff and Tanya Nuss. McGuire will be joined by Gary Grose on bass and Howard McMichael on steel drums.
“Somebody got in touch with me and said this would be a great place for me to play. So, I’m looking forward to it!” McGuire continues. “I love people up close and personal.” It’s the latest iteration of a career that has taken McGuire literally all over the country and the world, but always returning him to his beloved Gulf Coast area.
In a previous life, Dallasite (by way of Missouri and Oklahoma City) McGuire spent 15 years performing in bars and—believe it or not—pizza parlors (Shotgun Sam’s Pizza Palace, to be exact, which McGuire says “was like a Shakey’s only better”).
He was a one-man cover band with bass pedals and a drum machine and a harmonica around his neck, and it burned him out at the end. He first showed up in Houston when the restaurant chain Tony Roma’s hired him to play a local opening in the early 1980s.
“I got down to Galveston and saw all those boats and knew that I’d be moving there,” he says. Leaving music behind, he got jobs selling yachts and teaching sailing and was enjoying that. Until he started “messing around with music at home for fun” and on a whim decided to start writing original material, which he had never attempted before. Still with no thoughts of performing publicly again.
“I wasn’t a songwriter at all and really didn’t practice. I’d memorize words to a song off the radio and play it for the first time at the gig. But here I was messing around on guitar and piano and one [original] song came after another.”
At the time, he was living on a boat in Seabrook, which lent itself pretty well to frequent lyrical themes of boats, islands and beaches in his songs. A quick trip to Nashville to record some of his more country-learning tunes didn’t pan out, so it was back to the boats, tropical escapism and island vibes.
Very similar to what another artist—a certain Jimmy Buffett—was producing as he built his Parrothead Nation. Where the music was a supplement to an entire lifestyle (fantasy for most) and vibe that has since become a huge business empire. Buffett’s 2003 duet with Alan Jackson on “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and the popularity of Kenny Chesney’s “Beach Country” crossover music also found listeners.
McGuire released his debut CD Redfish Island in 2004. Its songs actually got some play on Jimmy Buffett’s Sirius Radio Margaritaville station and sold about 20,000 copies with no national release. McGuire has since released four more studio and one live album. Mostly of his originals with titles like “Barnacles,” “Boat in Belize,” “Woman Behind the Wheel,” “Just a Wannabee” and the tongue-in-cheek “Blame it on Buffett.”
But he’s also penned songs and relationships—romantic and otherwise– with “I’m Not Over You,” “Rich Man,” “Destiny & Fate,” and “Any Better Than This.” His last record was 2011’s King of the Island and hopes to have a long-awaited follow up ready this winter. McGuire also continues to work as a painter, another avenue for his creativity.
In addition to his beloved Seabrook, McGuire has also found a second home in the unlikely Central American beach-filled country of Belize. Since 2004 or 2005, he’s gone there several times a year for a string of performances, often to Americans who then hire him come playhouse concerts at their own residences across the country. He also tours states like Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
But back to Belize. His first employer randomly found McGuire via the Country Music Association of Texas website, where McGuire had won Independent Artist of the Year.
“He was from the Netherlands and had an accent. He contacted me and started blabbering about Belize and his bar and I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about!” McGuire laughs. “And then he said those words that scare me to death: ‘We’ll take care of all your expenses.’ I almost blew it off, but he called me three days later with a number. And it was my Continental Airlines ticket!”
Through it all, Jimmy Buffett has remained his lodestar in terms of artistry.
“People who like Buffett assume everybody knows who he is but that’s not the case. He’s not an international star like Elvis or Sinatra,” he says. “But no one I can think of has had an impact on lifestyle like he has. There are a lot of Margaritaville resorts and retirement centers and communities in this country!”
McGuire adds that he’s not too keen on the attempts by Parrotheads to give a name to the genre: Trop Rock.
Finally, while he never met his musical hero before Buffett’s death in 2023 at the age of 76, we ask: If Kelly McGuire found himself next to Jimmy Buffett on a plane ride to Belize, what would he say?
“I’d probably talk to him about fly fishing!” he laughs. “And his sailing adventures. The guy is just an amazing entrepreneur in addition to his music. And I would just thank him. There’s a lot of singers and songwriter guys like me that are his legacy.”
The Kelly McGuire Band plays at 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 6, at the Cedar Oaks Inn, 3822 Water, in Dickinson. Concertgoers can bring their own alcohol, drinks, chairs, and snacks. A taco truck will be on-site. For information, call the Inn at 281-657-5435. To purchase tickets, visit RedfishIsland.com. $40. Under 16 free.
For more on Kelly McGuire, visit RedFishIsland.com or ReverbNation.com/KellyMcGuire
