#70 – I Have Found Me A Home
Day #70 – I Have Found Me A Home
Home is defined in multiple ways. It can be a place where one lives permanently, it can be a place of origination or a base of operations. It can be where you were raised or where you come from, it can be a place that lasts an entire life or just a few weeks or days. It can be a place where you feel like you belong, possibly because there is something about that place that you connect with or fits your attitude or mindset. It seems like a simple word, but “home” can be quite deep and complicated.
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Original post from 11/10/2023
Day #70 – I Have Found Me A Home
I Have Found Me A Home was released on JB’s 1973 album White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean.
This album marks a change for Jimmy, from living and writing in Nashville to living and writing in Key West. I think of it as a bit of a transition record, with notes of country and folk along with the new ocean inspired feeling.
In an interview with his daughter Delaney in 2020, Jimmy says this was the first song he wrote after coming to Key West. When Delaney asked him what this song was about and what inspired him to write it, he simply says “that I had found me a home, that’s what it’s about, that’s what I felt when I got there”.
Jimmy arrived in Key West in 1971 or 1972, after a two-record deal that had the first album sell around 300 copies, and a second album “lost”, with all the master recordings “missing”, and not many prospects but his own belief in himself.
He didn’t know if another contract would ever happen and was playing small shows, basically himself on stage, but he knew he was in a place that he loved, a place that fit him. He loved the idea of Key West and called it the “history at the end of America”.
Then Don Gant and ABC records made him an offer, which he took. He cut a new album in Nashville, but with a Key West vibration. And that record sold enough copies to pay off his student loans, get himself out of debt and with the leftover over profit, he did what any adventurous pirate would do… he bought a boat, called her the Euphoria, and took her sailing around the Caribbean.
Then he got a tour opening for the Eagles, which changed so many things for his career. And there was no looking back!
Except maybe to his love of the town and people and energy of Key West. A town that felt like home from the first moment.
The interview of Directed By Delaney is full of little, amazing tidbits, including addresses in Key West he lived, the old red bike that he used to get around town on, working artist showcases for very little pay, his friendship with Glenn Frey of the Eagles, working in a garage and helping work on Jerry Jeff Walker’s car, which they then drove to Key West. Home, or as he says in the song lyrics, a place that “I have found me some peace”.
Please enjoy I Have Found Me A Home. It was Jimmy’s first tribute to the town at the bottom of America that gave him a home, and the inspiration to continue pursuing his dream. I have included the link in the comments below.
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I think Jimmy called many places home over the years. Certainly, Pascagoula and Mobile. Probably New Orleans, Key West, Miami, Aspen, St Barts and Sag Harbor. No doubt there are places that I have failed to mention or don’t even know about that he considered homes for a time. Jimmy wrote this song about Key West, inspired when he first arrived because he felt at “home”. Even in February of 2023, Jimmy was playing smaller live shows in Key West, and I bet he still felt like he was at “home”.
A magical thing about this song is it can mean so much to so many people, because home means such different things or locations or items to so many people. No matter where or what you call home, I imagine that listening to this song brings you right back to your own “home” and feels a bit nostalgic and hopefully like a warm hug or a friendly wave.
Stacy
Please enjoy I Have Found Me A Home. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
