You just never know where an evening’s gonna end up or how friends will connect you with other friends… <\/p>\n
Last Sunday, me and my pals John Cirillo and Christian Raphael were playing our regular in-the-round gig at the Bayview Hotel<\/a> in Aptos. Great crowd, gorgeous summer day on the coast, and always nice playing with friends. <\/p>\n I noticed a guy sitting in the back noodling on his guitar. I walked by during a break, and he said he really liked my SUV song<\/a>. Said he thought he heard it on the radio. I told him unless he was in Reno<\/a> last weekend and heard it over KTHX, that was doubtful. Then we introduced ourselves. I was talking to Will Strickland. <\/p>\n For anyone within earshot the Monterey Bay area and KPIG<\/a> radio, the words “I got a hog call for ya baby”<\/b> can only belong to one man. Will Strickland does many of KPIG’s signature ads and promos. These days he’s also on KSCO<\/a> in the afternoons (4:30 pm) interviewing bands on their way through town. <\/p>\n So the connections: I told Will, “you probably heard my SUV song at Jimmy’s house”. (Jimmy Jackson<\/a> produced my CD and is good friends with Strickland.)<\/p>\n More connections: I asked him, do you remember Roger Collins? (Roger’s married to my wife’s childhood friend Denise. They both live in Tahoe.) Strickland said, “Yeah, Roger’s one my best friends”. <\/p>\n I went back and finished my set. Will asked if he could play after us. He treated us to a 45-minute set of what he does best: Completely improvised songs. He did a nonstop medley of made-up rhythm and blues numbers based on whoever unsuspectedly walked out the backdoor of the restaurant. Just brilliant. (The rest of us were busy dancing and waving percussion instruments.)<\/p>\n It was just one of those magic nights. You never know where a gig will go. As much fun as I have making music, the real joy in the thing is the friends I keep making. And when you make new friends and you both have good friends in common, that’s just icing on the cake. <\/p>\n