North Fort Myers Neighbor Living | Nashville musician adds to Babcock’s art scene
A Nashville musician, whose primary business is teaching music and guitar, is igniting a musical community at Babcock Ranch.
“During the pandemic I had the most online business I ever had in my career. Among the people who reached out to me was Al Dougherty from Babcock,” Dave Isaacs said of his guitar student of four years, who also is the chief operating officer of Kitson & Partners.
Isaacs, is a guitarist, educator, mentor, and author of “The Perpetual Beginner.” As a teacher, he works primarily with adults who have played music for a long time and want to either hone in on their own music, or overcome hurdles that have been intractable for years.
Over the years of Isaacs and Dougherty working together they talked about doing a guitar workshop at Babcock Ranch.
“I came down to do that in March 2023 and that basically opened the door, and I got the invitation to help plan the Nashville Night Festival,” Isaacs said.
At that same time there were conversations brewing around the lack of an arts presence at Babcock Ranch.
“It was a fortuitous meeting at the right time,” he said. “Over the course of the conversations throughout 2023, we came up with the idea of Babcock Jams, implemented at a grassroots level.”
The idea behind Babcock Jams is encouraging musicians to work together.
“Officially we launched it in March. That was the beginning of my formal arrangement with Babcock,” Isaacs said of becoming a musician in residence. “I am also working as a consultant behind the scenes with planning some of the larger things – festival events and construction of a Community Center to accommodate the arts program.”
He said when Babcock Ranch comes up in conversation the word community and innovation are always mentioned, which connects to the philosophy of music. Music, Isaac said, when done as a community building endeavor, is much better than in isolation.
“People are coming out of the woodwork,” Isaac said of a barber shop quartet, a pianist for musicals at Babcock Ranch. “The playing together part is the most exciting part for me. A great thing for us to do as humans.”
Isaac said it has felt very natural for him to step into the role of the musician in residence.
“It’s an unfolding situation, especially in a sense that these people are idea people. People are trying to find ways to do things better. That resonates with me and resonates with the way that I think in terms of playing music,” he said. “How can we elevate this – I hear that type of language all the time at Babcock. That is engaging and inspiring to me. It’s energy to work off of. It’s been really great for me personally. The next challenge I didn’t see coming.”
Once a month Isaac travels from Nashville to Southwest Florida to hold a monthly workshop with the last one attracting 30 people.
There was a regular beginner guitar class for adults held in April and a Ukulele class starting in the fall. There is also a partnership beginning between a dance and visual arts business at Babcock Ranch in the beginning of May. There is also a band in residence that gets together every Tuesday afternoon in Founder’s Square to play.
Isaac said he fell in love with playing the guitar immediately while growing up in New York. That passion eventually led him to Nashville in 2005 when he began looking for the next round of opportunities.
“When I got here, the groove that I found was as a teacher,” he said because he found a way to work with creative people and songwriters to build musical careers. “It gives you a chance to work at a higher level.”
He settled into an area of problem solving, helping individuals hone their musical talents and overcoming hurdles.
His business, Nashville Guitar Guru, resonates with the way he thinks and the direction he wanted to lead people when it came to music.
“I love Nashville. It gives me all kinds of great opportunities. I am at a point in my life where I love to perform, write music and play. I will never stop doing that. I am not climbing a ladder here. When this Babcock opportunity appeared, it has really expanded in ways I could not have foreseen,” Isaac said.
He said planning has already begun for another Nashville Night Festival, which will resemble more of a festival kind of atmosphere this year.
“Last year as friends of mine from Nashville, all basically unknown, but working musicians that are good at what they do. This year we have names that you will know in addition to people I have invited. I am looking to curate a musical experience,” Isaac said. “Hopefully, this year there will be an overlap with Babcock Jams. One of the things I want to do is to showcase the jammers. How many people can we get up on the stage?” NFMNL
This story appears in the latest issue of the North Fort Myers Neighbor Living magazine, available at locations throughout North Fort Myers.