Roshambo’s Jim Couch Wants to Make It with You
By Chris Manson May 22, 2003 Issue

As the owner of KJ’s for the last five years, Jim Couch hasn’t had to look very far for musicians to entertain the crowds in his bar.

“I’ve been playing music since forever. I started playing for money in 1983, when I was going to junior college. After I started playing in bands, my parents said, ‘You can live at home as long as you go back to school,’” Couch said. He attended the University of West Florida for two years, during which time he didn’t play music. But it wasn’t long before Couch was traveling around Pensacola with bands. He soon discovered there was more work for musicians in Destin.

“I started playing at Hosers around 1995 or 1996,” he said. Prior to that, Couch played guitar with Miss Demeanor—“you could write a book about them,” he said of the now-defunct group.

Couch appears solo on Wednesday nights around 10:30 and with his band Roshambo on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. “Monday is the biggest night. It’s nuts. It’s so busy, people don’t even come out here any more!” he said. Dave Pretlow joins Couch on bass, and Ron Pekrul provides the drum beat. “All of us sing. We’re a power trio.” Couch compared Roshambo to Triumph and Rush, then quickly added that he was joking.

Roshambo came together in 1997. “We played here in September and October and ran everybody off. This place had a crowd like the Boathouse, wanting to hear Jimmy Buffett and we were playing more rock songs, blues, newer stuff. The people coming from the Boathouse would ask us to play Buffett or Skynyrd. That winter, KJ’s was open Friday and Saturday nights and nobody came! Finally, the locals liked what we were doing, and we built it up from there,” Couch said.

His brother, Larry, from Panama City—“a great player”--filled in for a year and a half on bass before Pretlow joined. Roshambo covers a wide range of material, from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s electric blues to the alternative sounds of Cake and Sublime. Couch hasn’t had time to work on any original material since he got married last October to “my beautiful wife Michelle.” Oh, yeah, running the bar keeps the guy busy, too.

Couch grew up as a Navy kid, attending high school in Spain for three years. His earliest musical influences were country and “stuff like Boots Randolph”, the music his parents listened to. When he reached junior high, Couch discovered the Eagles, Rush and Kansas. The former group’s Leftoverture is the first album he bought. He also liked Electric Light Orchestra. “That was the strangest stuff. I loved it,” Couch said.

“My dad was pretty much non-musical. He’d start to sing Christmas carols, and everyone else would stop. But my mom and her family were very musical. She had a guitar and helped me out learning some chords. Poor dad, he just couldn’t sing. But Mom could play guitar and banjo,” Couch said. His father passed away two years ago. Couch’s mother lives in Milton and occasionally comes by to hear her son play—“but not on Monday night!” Couch said.

Wednesday nights you can find Couch and his Takimine guitar on the KJ’s stage, doing Simon and Garfunkel, Peter Gabriel and quite a bit of Neil Young. “I’m a big fan of Radiohead,” he said, noting that he has successfully adapted some of the art-rockers’ songs to the unplugged format.

Couch admits there are way too many great musicians in the area to list, but singled out Jonathan Grooms, the man who got him his first gig with Miss Demeanor and the original bass player for Roshambo. Ken Gettinger, who recently rejoined Black Eyed Blonde, is another favorite, along with Lucky Snapper fixture Pat Boone. “Also, Chris Hayes, who plays at KJ’s on Thursdays. I met him when me and my brother were playing at Hosers. Chris was just learning to play guitar. He’s very dynamic, plays original songs.”

Around midnight, Couch kicked off a loose and spontaneous set. One of the regulars requested Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Life by the Drop. “I need a Jager first,” Couch said, and bartender Frank Pugliese honored his request. “Hell, yeah! Rock the house, Couch!,” Pugliese shouted after an impressive acoustic treatment of that great blues tune. Next Couch played the Bread ballad Make It With You—earlier he mentioned that a fan of Roshambo caught him doing the song at Soleil et Luna and called him a “sellout.” Couch tore up the fretboard during a clever interpretation of Emerson Lake and Palmer’s From the Beginning. “Ya know, Jimi Hendrix was gonna play guitar for ELP. They would’ve been called HELP!” Couch said.

A heated discussion of forgotten ‘70s chart-toppers like Undercover Angel, The Pina Colada Song and Chevy Van followed, then Couch sang Lyle Lovett’s If I Had a Boat. Someone at the bar suggested that Couch do pornographic versions of popular songs, and he briefly sang “Are you going to shave all that hair?” to the tune of Scarborough Fair. But it was back to business soon enough. Couch added harmonica to Neil Young’s Comes a Time, then played the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood using a weird guitar tuning his friend Pat Boone taught him.

Soon, more locals poured into KJ’s as Couch delivered a heartfelt rendition of Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over. At 1 a.m. as many were long asleep and local watering holes were headed toward closing, Couch and company were just getting started. (Top)

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