John Bartus - Songwriter, Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Very few towns or cities could ever claim that their Mayor was a smokin' hot guitar player. The island city of Marathon in the Florida Keys is one of those towns. While politics is a temporary call to service, music is a life sentence. John Bartus, a 30-year full-time professional musician, singer, and songwriter, continues to raise the bar with both his groundbreaking solo acoustic show, and his killer band, Storm Watch.
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John Bartus was the Mayor of an island town in the Florida Keys (Marathon). He is or has been, at one time or another, part owner of a newspaper group, radio talk show host, partner in retail shops, record producer, magazine publisher, city councilman, recording studio owner, voiceover talent, advertising consultant, and -- no lie -- prop man for a circus. But what John Bartus is best known for is being one of the premier singer/songwriters in the islands Jimmy Buffett once called home. And after thirty-plus years of entertaining audiences, John is far from putting the guitar down. As he put it in a recent interview, "Long after all my other careers are through, I'll still be playing music somewhere." And even with all the other careers, John still performs more than 200 shows each year. He has shared the stage or opened for artists like Kansas, E-Street sax man Clarence Clemons, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, and 38 Special. He and his band headline the Florida Keys' best St. Patrick's and Independence Day parties as well as the huge Marathon Seafood Festival year after year.
As diverse as his interests outside of music have been, so too are his musical paths. There are the Taylor-, Chapin-, and Lightfoot-influenced solo acoustic guitar performances. There's the Fogelberg- and McCartney-like studio perfectionist. There's the Billy-and-Elton-influenced piano balladeer. And there's the electric band leader/lead guitarist, equal parts Neil Young, Dave Gilmour, and Mark Knopfler. John's three recent CD releases highlight this diversity. On the 2002 Keys Disease CD, Bartus the studio rat showed just what can be done by one person in a recording studio -- "The old-fashioned way, by really playing all the parts," Bartus is quick to point out. And John's Live From The Florida Keys CD showcases his solo acoustic guitar and piano work in a live Florida Keys club setting. John Bartus & Storm Watch - Live at the 2009 Marathon Seafood Festival is a showcase of a really good band at a big event. Both live CDs are really 100% live -- neither one was 'fixed' in the studio after the fact.
John Bartus got off the road in the Florida Keys back in the mid-1980s, just after releasing his first album with then-partner Sallie Foster. "For four years, I left home and traveled to where the people were," Bartus says with a smile. "For the past twenty, I've let them leave home and come to me. It's better for all of us that way!"