Cayman’s barefoot troubadour writes the guide to living the dream

For more than 50 years, George ‘Barefoot Man’ Nowak, has been part of the soundtrack of Cayman. His irreverent humour, island-soaked melodies and wry commentary on life in the tropics have made him one of the territory’s most recognisable cultural figures.

Now at 75, he has written what he calls “a guidebook for how to be a beach bum with a guitar”.  His book, available on Amazon,  is titled ‘How to Buy a Beach House in the Caribbean with Three Cords and a Guitar.’

Nowak is frank about the premise.

“My dream has always been to be a beach bum,” he said with a grin. “The guitar has just paid my way, so I don’t have to have a 9-to-5 job. This book is about how I have been able to do it.”

Born in Munich to German parents, Nowak arrived in the United States at age eight, unable to speak, read or write a word of English. He would later land on Grand Cayman and carve out a career few musicians ever manage: 20 albums’ worth of songs, four books, a long-running satirical newspaper and paid writing gigs for magazines across the region.

Yet he remains best known for those barefoot nights under the stars at the old Holiday Inn on Seven Mile Beach, where generations of visitors and locals came to hear him play.

His new book is not a memoir, he insists. “It is not an autobiography; I didn’t want to write a boastful book,” he said. “There is a lot of jealousy in the music industry; there are hundreds of Jimmy Buffett-type artists out there. The book is about how I landed on an island, sold a bunch of CDs – at one point 38 shops carried them – and the tricks of the trade I used to do it.”

In the introduction, Nowak’s trademark self-deprecation appears in full force:“The truth is I am not a great singer; I am not a great guitarist. I think I’m a pretty good songwriter and the material has always been the islands. But my best knack of all has always been the marketing aspect. Because you can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t market it, you’ve got nothing.”

He writes with candid humour about performing today: “I am 75 years old… I need a haircut, and yesterday I performed for a private party in a $3.5 million-dollar condo on Seven Mile Beach. I was paid $1,000 to sing for three hours using three chords and a capo; with a 30-minute intermission for rum and coke.”

Through his music, he managed to purchase 200 feet of oceanfront property in the Cayman Islands. “Beach property I’m sitting on while writing these memories … behind me is my two-story home and a large swimming pool. The palm trees are swaying.”

The book is framed by tributes from fellow musicians and industry figures who have known him for decades. Grammy winning producer Keith Stegall calls him “a pirate, a sailor and troubadour … but most of all, my buddy.”

Singer-songwriter James ‘Sunny Jim’ White says, “Come meet the man that every wannabe tropical singer/songwriter wishes they could be. He has, in fact, written the book on it.”

And Skin Diver Magazine publisher Paul Tzimoulis remembered him as “one of the most industrious people I have ever met.”

Musician Paul Overstreet perhaps sums it up best: “He found somewhere he wanted to be and he built a career out of entertaining people there on the island.”