The Island Hopper: Love will keep us together

This weekend I had a bit of a revelation ... a satori ... a Tiffany epiphany, if you will, while attending the wedding of my friend Mary Zachrich and her now-hubby, Chuck Schwindt, at their gorgeous waterfront Marco home.

Fiddle player, singer, guitarist and ubiquitous musician extraordinaire J. Robert entertained the many guests along with his latest addition, tiny powerhouse vocalist Janet Poole.

I'm usually only lucky enough to see J. Robert play when he comes out to jam with other local musicians or in his very rare public appearances. Most of his work, he reports, is now at private gigs like weddings.

Now, I realized as I watched Chuck and Mary give their vows to each other on their backyard dock, with family behind them and friends on the patio overlooking the ceremony, that I adore weddings. I love the hope and faith crystallized into sharp relief when a couple promises their lives to each other. For that day, we forget how hard life can be. We forget we have to guard ourselves against all the people who have hurt us, or will.

At those times we see the best of what love is and the joy of life's most meaningful experiences as a group of people all share in that fleeting moment of untainted faith and hope. I never leave a wedding without feeling uplifted; I never fail to be moved and touched. I am re-gifted with a child's feeling that love is everywhere and life is inherently good.

And, on top of all that, there's usually great entertainment! No cheesy deejay spinning the Chicken Dance or the freakin' Electric Slide for the newly minted Schwindts. No, sir — J. Robert and Janet Poole instead presented fully live music, love songs, pop hits, dance numbers — and a happy helping of fiddlin' bluegrass. (It's J. Robert — you expected something else?)

My moment of enlightenment was that I could expand my column to include the many wonderfully talented local bands that only play private gigs if I were, in fact, invited to more of them! I could try to finagle wedding invitations, inclusions in company parties, or hop on over to anniversary galas. I don't eat much, I have reasonably good conversation skills and, hey, I'd be a novelty as the visiting columnist covering your event!

It might be the start of a whole new branch of my career ... .

But having to actually do what I am, in fact, responsible for, I stopped by Goodland's Old Marco Lodge before the matrimonial festivities to revisit an old favorite, Key West musician C.W. Colt.

Colt was one of the first reviews I ever wrote for the Islander. Back then I was impressed with his musicianship and his versatile voice. Three years and more experience have only given me greater appreciation for Colt's style.

His music — created only with his acoustic guitar, which he handles deftly and easily, producing a full, rich sound — is an amalgam of Jimmy Buffett, Toby Keith, maybe a little James Taylor, and more than a dash of Stevie Ray. There are loads of originals — hallelujah, C.W. — along with crowd-pleasing covers of everything from rock to blues to country.

He's got an enjoyable voice — take Cat Stevens' pleasantly nasal folk sound, swirl in a Tracy Lawrence rumble, top it off with a dash of Buffett and you get Colt. In fact, one of the singer's claims to fame is that Buffett once opened for Colt — a true story, he swears.

Colt seems to be having a grand old time, having fully embraced the tropical lifestyle since moving here from Colorado nearly two decades ago. Wearing shorts, a tropical-print shirt, wraparound sunglasses and sporting a chin dimple that would make John Travolta jealous, he encourages audience participation, leads communal cocktail sippings and even prods his crowd into a gleeful "bockalong" for Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens.

Colt's unique sound is a jumpy and jazzy, funky and folksy mix of musical styles that's ideal for his milieu.

Add in the fact that you're sitting on the hugely appealing open-air deck behind the Old Marco Lodge, watching sun sparkle off the water, clouds scud by and boats glide back and forth, and it's truly the perfect way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon in paradise.