Key West Florida Weekly

MUSIC SCENE

Joal Rush: Home is where the music is



 

 

Joal Rush says that music was a normal part of his childhood. His parents were musicians, so becoming a musician himself just “felt like the natural thing to do.” For Rush, growing up in Camden, S.C. meant singing in church and performing in talent shows. Back then, all roads led to music as they still do for him to this day.

“I remember a talent show in fifth grade where I did Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine,” he laughs, “I had a prop guitar and was wearing an acid washed jean jacket with a hand-drawn peace sign on the back. I was gonna lip sync, but everyone told me to go live. After that, I was like I think I could keep doing this.”

Years later and Joal is now a full-time musician who divides his time between writing and recording in Nashville with entertaining in Key West. At the moment, you can catch him at popular hangouts like Conch Republic Seafood Restaurant, 631 Greene St., and Blue Macaw, 804 Whitehead St. He will be doing a week’s worth of sets from Nov. 28-Dec. 3 at Smokin’ Tuna, the “bustling, open-aired hangout” tucked into a side street just off of Duval on 4 Charles St.

Joal isn’t a stranger to the island. This isn’t his first season, or even his second or third. Like a musical snowbird, he has been a part of the Key West scene on and off for 16 years. If Nashville is the place where he can nurture his creativity, then Key West is where he can show it off. It’s a balancing act that seems to work out well for him. Or as he describes it, “One hand feeds the other.” The rest, like finding that you have become a bona fide part of the community, just kind of naturally follows.

“Key West will always be a place I can come and just be,” he says, “Sometimes it’s nice to sleep in your own bed, but with that being said, everyone is so accommodating here, I can’t imagine it being better anywhere else. I’m grateful to be able to come down here, do what I love and be with great friends and family.”

“So where do you live exactly?” I ask him.

There’s a moment of silence followed by a quick sigh before he replies by saying “that’s a loaded question.”

Indeed, it is when you are on the road between here and there half of the time and spending significant amounts of the year in two places that could not be any more different. It is Key West that benefits from the majority of his stage time. It is his ambition that keeps him going back to Nashville.

No stranger to the studio, Joal recently recorded his newest album “Kaleidoscope Emotion,” which has yet to become fully available to the public. Instead, he has started releasing the album’s singles on Spotify or for purchase on iTunes starting with “I’ll Never Learn,” which came out on Sept. 17. The promising hit has a sophisticated sound that is very easy to listen to. It’s full of soulful folk, funk, Americana with a hint of country gospel and talks about a rather intimate relationship with the bottle — something that we Key Wester’s might know a thing or two about.

Understandably, Joal is very anxious for people to hear the rest of album. He hopes to release another single soon and is excited about going on tour in the near future to let the of the country hear his Southern vocals. Until then, he’ll be in Key West through New Year’s jamming out with some of his good friends like Caffeine Carl, Joey Marchiano and Claire Finley and making fun YouTube videos to support his favorite bars in town.

“Some of my best memories are from Key West,” Joal says, “like being a part of the Ramble shows at the Key West Theater, when I shared a stage with Chris Weaver, Lewis Brice, and Shane Williams and Warren Bazemore of the band Finnegan Bell, and when I’m playing with my friend Nick Norman.” Joal and Nick have known each other since they both attended the University of South Carolina. The two grew up in a circle of talented friends who have the same dream to be more than just your average guitar player. Like Joal, they all write their own music with a unique sound that is all their own.

Joal first came to Key West because he was looking for weather that never got cold. Sure, he was mazed and floored, but he didn’t realize at the time that it would embrace him to the point that he would be opening one day for Big Head Todd and the Monsters at the Key West Theater, or that Key West would play a big part in his own story, professionally and personally.

He’ll be here until after the holidays and will return during the annual Key West Songwriters Festival, which is held in various downtown bars every spring. The next festival is May 9-13. Some of the best songwriters from all over the country come to town for a few nights of original songs straight from the writers themselves, and Joal is always one of them.

It goes without saying that Joal has set his sights high. He’s not just here to do a gig; he’s here to play his music with the hopes that it is the best music you’ve ever heard. Check him out before he is gone. ¦

One response to “MUSIC SCENE”

  1. McBain says:

    Joal Rush was always a fun show to catch! Every night he hits it out of the park!

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