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BAND OF THE FORTNIGHT
Coconut Radio—“America’s Caribbean Jam Band”—continue to wow the Village of Baytowne Wharf crowds Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights starting at 7. They also appear regularly at baby J’s on the Destin Harbor. Sue Kittredge and Steve Reeths have released a CD of original songs you need to purchase from CD Baby or the band’s MySpace page, www.myspace.com/coconutradioband.
Kittredge plays violin, cello, acoustic bass and percussion, while Reeths is skilled at most stringed instruments, too—guitar, ukelele, mandocello, etc. Both are superb singers and songwriters—Kittredge’s instrumental “Nellie’s Lament” is a standout. “We had recently lost a family pet,” says Reeths. “It was written for her.”
An expanded version of the duo—the Coconut String Band—includes the Steenos and “Washboard” Jackson. “That’s an occasional thing,” says Reeths. Around the middle of January, he and Kittredge plan to go further south for a “mini tour.” They hope to wind up somewhere around Key West.
“We met a guy in Fairhope recently who put us in contact with an organization out of south Florida called the ‘margarita mafia,’ musicians who have that beach mentality.” Reeths says he and Kittredge cover a wide variety of music but put an original spin on it. “We do the Kinks tune ‘Come Dancing.’ Sue discovered a sound on her violin that we haven’t heard anyone do—it sounds like a steel drum. It becomes the Kinks calypso.” Reeths credits Niceville High School graduate Bo Duncan (drums) and Kenny Aiken (guitar, hand percussion) with helping to flesh out the duo’s sound.
“We’re not trying to be the next Jimmy Buffett,” says Reeths. “We just want to play our music and have fun. It’s all about smiles.” Reeths and Kittredge are planning a new album of original songs. “It will be a theme album, and we’re kind of exploiting the steel drum sound,” he says. “The whole thing is about coming down to this area and becoming so enraptured you have to stay. It’s about discovering this cool place.”
- The Beachcomber Newspaper
Discography
self titled EP Coconut Radio
streaming on 365 permanent vacation radio, rhapsody, itunes, napster, etc. available on CDBaby
Photos
Bio
Steve Reeths and Sue Kittredge formed the duo Coconut Radio in 2007 after playing many years in the upper Midwest with the jam band Square One. Hearing the call of the warm southern tropics the two embraced the beach music scene that was not only Trop Rock, but included many great Americana, Bluegrass and Blues musicians as well. Drawing inspiration from their contemporaries, as well as the snow white beaches and blue skies of South Walton County, the duo creates with fiddle and guitar an acoustic music style that is an amalgam of all the things they love about their new home. Like a great gumbo or a drink served in a coconut, there is a bunch of different sounds, but they all add up to one thing: Coconut Radio.
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