TropiCountry: we may be the first to write about it but so many of us live out the lyrics every day, or at least dream about doing so. ‘No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems’ by Kenny Chesney started the ‘No Shoes Nation.’ There’s the #1 hit titled “It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere” sung by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett with a music video so memorable many of us can even recite the closing banter between the two artists. ‘Two Pina Coladas’ by Garth Brooks may be the first TropiCountry hit making him the father of the subgenre. And it makes sense that so many of us love this this music. How many of you that have boats play something besides country music while out on the water? I didn’t think so. I personally couldn’t imagine playing anything else. Even when you’re nowhere near the water, all you need to do is turn on Zac Brown Band’s ‘Toes In The Water’ to feel like they really are.
Who can forget Luke Bryan’s 7 years of spring break concerts on Panama City Beach attracting hundreds of thousands of fans. Have you seen the video of Kenny Chesney’s FloridaBama concert on the beach and all the people watching by boat? I've talked to people who went and they've told me it was the best concert of their lives. Then there’s Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Three days of the biggest names in Country Music transforms the town into a country mecca with cowboy hats for as far as the eyes can see.
It makes sense that country & the coast go together perfectly. We can thank the ocean for bringing us cattle and in turn, the Wild West culture that inspires so many of these songs. You may know that the first cattle in the United States came by boat to Florida 500 years ago when Spain still ruled over the wild and untamed peninsula.
Florida is home to some of the biggest names producing this type of country music. Growing up in Vero Beach, Jake Owen performs on stage barefoot, singing albums-worth of country songs with beach vibes. Perhaps the biggest news for the genre is Brian Kelley, known for being the Florida side of Florida Georgia Line, dropping an album named “Sunshine State Of Mind” that tells stories of growing up on the East Coast of Florida. He's rightly known as the Beach Cowboy, launching his solo tour near his hometown at the Daytona Beach Bandshell and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
You can check out more TropiCountry hits by listening to our Spotify playlist HERE
Saltwater Ranch’s exists to embody the western-inspired coastal community in country music so that, together, our collective influence could help enrich the genre and give back to the coastal areas that we love.