Beyond Buffett

Ricky always had music swimming around in his head. He was a member of a grunge band playing pizza parlors and coffee shops in Charlotte, North Carolina until he met Beck Rowan. Beck was on his way down to Key West but before leaving Charlotte, he stopped in Queens Town Music where Ricky worked to purchase a new Gibson Songwriter Deluxe guitar, which he really couldn't afford in his current state of being "job-challenged". Ricky suggested that Beck look up his sister who lived in Key West and gave him a slip of paper with her phone number on it as Beck walked out of the store with his new guitar.

About a year later, Beck and Jeannie Fireman, Ricky's sister, were married and pretty soon Ricky decided to make the move to Key West to join his brother-in-law covering Buffett songs in a local waterfront restaurant and bar. With the help of the owner of the bar, who was once a successful music agent and was credited with discovering Jimmy Buffett, the duet of Beck Rowan and Ricky Fireman hit rock-star status in Key West and sales of their three CDs skyrocketed with each new cruise ship that docked in the Conch Republic.

Ricky met and married the"pretty girl" named Claire Campbell who had pursued Ricky at Wet Tortugas while he and Beck were playing their second set one evening. After a couple very successful years playing in Key West, Ricky confided in Claire that he had a dream of creating his own sound, combining palm tree music with a little reggae and new age, blending all the music together so it would float across the Caribbean with the gentle trade winds. But, he felt he couldn't perfect the sound while still under the influence of palm tree music he and Beck played six nights a week, so he persuaded Claire, who was now pregnant with their first child, to chase the dream with him to Jamaica. Ricky's restlessness next led his young family to St. Barths where unimaginable tragedy struck as told in his story to a stranger one warm fall evening at the resort where he played while on the small French island.