Blues Fest at Buckingham Bar…

We made it back to Seminole Campground from Key West and we were planning to sit back and relax after our adventures in Key West. However, some friends we made here at the park, Pam and Vic, told us about a funky little tavern down the road a piece from us. After they described the place and then told us they were having a Blues Festival there on Saturday we were convinced that we would have to wait another day to  relax…

We looked on the internet to see what we could find out about this place called the Buckingham Blues Bar. The website claims that the Blues Bar is world famous and after reading the stories on the web about how the owner spent $80K to buy a run down bar,some surrounding property and converted it into what it is today.  It is now a funky bar with a beautiful outdoor patio/garden area where a good sized stage can host bands for a wonderful outdoor concert experience…

Less than 10 miles from the RV park this Blues Fest was a no-brainer event to attend… We grabbed our folding collapsible chairs, made the short drive to the bar, parked, and made our way to the gate to pay our $7 per person to enter. Now the bar is nothing special as it would always be classified as a dive bar but I say that in a good way since we both love dive bars more than the chains since the people you meet in them are sometimes way more interesting!!!

We made our way out back where the music had just started and discovered a fun and energetic band named Diddley Squat getting down… The saxophonist was fabulous and made several forays into the audience to serenade several of the ladies in the crowd. Of the three bands that played this day, we felt they put on the best show.

The next band looked to be a collection of many different musicians as several different musicians took turns at the mike to perform some of their favorites or some of the original works. There were a few pickers that could flat out strum their guitars and a thin elderly fellow that could play a mean trumpet… This cast of characters looked more like a group of people you might see at a redneck convention but they could play some jazz…

The last band that we heard was called Harper and wasn’t really a blues band but featured an Australian who blended western music with aboriginal music giving it  a unique sound. A cold front had just unfortunately made its way into this part of Florida and we didn’t stay too long to hear much of this unique music. Harper could play a mean harmonica and would make the drone of the digeridoo go right to your core…

I first heard the digeridoo in my travels to Antarctica and New Zealand in 1999 and later on when Sharon and I traveled to Australia just before we retired. The sound that this instrument makes is a unique a sound as you will hear. If you have never heard the instrument played before do so and you will know exactly what I mean.

So if you are ever in this area you really need to check out the World Famous Buckingham Blues Bar. Why, they even have a beer drinking mule named Bucky but if you want to see Bucky partake in an adult beverage you will need to buy an Amber Bock since that is apparently the only beer Bucky drinks…