In Good Company at Beaks

The Blue Island Beer Club played at Beaks Old Florida last night. We had a tough act to follow and were followed by another tough act. In fact, the acts we saw were all very good. My wife came along with some old friends who were visiting from Texas. Colleen had a great time (a good thing!) and enjoyed all the performers........and she leans toward the discriminating side!

I don't know the name of every musician who was there so I will do my best. John Kelly was there to support a couple of his friends and they were all good. J Kolb did a nice job solo laying some good harmonica parts down on Tupelo Honey and singing a fun Dan Hicks song. Steve Murr and Jay Kiernan started playing together and by the time they were finished they had Kevin Thomas, the owner Jamie, and a singer named Bob on stage with them doing some very good covers of James Taylor songs among others.

We followed that bunch and did three originals and two covers. Three of our songs had not been performed in public before so we thought we had put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Colleen gave us a good review but I recognize that she is biased. I had fun on While My Guitar Gently Weeps which Bruce did an excellent job of singing while I wailed away. Bruce also sang his original Spent which is a song about being a mature employee who is cut from the workforce abruptly......unfortunately a timely song.

Pete Merrigan and TC Carr followed us. Pete is an area mainstay and did an excellent job. TC is a harmonica player par excellence who reminded me of Fingers Taylor, Jimmy Buffett's outstanding harpist. They will be playing at the St Pete Saturday Morning Market.

Jerry Jakala played some of his bluesy originals and was accompanied by Kevin Thomas and Douglas Lichterman. Jerry is the chapter coordinator of the Just Plain Folks chapter and can be heard at lots of local events, some of which he organizes. Good job by Jerry.

There were a couple more acts but it was time for us to go home. A fun St Pete evening.

My solo sailing CD is finished and is in the hands of CD Baby where it will soon be for sale on the internet both in CD and digital download form. It will also be available on iTunes and Amazon.com although that will take a little longer. The album will also be playing on Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine radio and will be available in their download store, along with the Blue Island Beer Club CD. I am happy with the results and look forward to getting the CD in the hands of some sailing enthusiasts for some feedback. Standby..........