Giving thanks for a fine live music week!

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. I certainly enjoyed the live music I heard around town this week. 
I started out by going to the Fort Pierce American Legion where Marschall Van Doren was entertaining the lovely people there with his singing and keyboard playing as he does a couple of times a month. Marschall does a variety of songs, old standbys and favorites and I arrived just in time to sing a few tunes with him. It was worth the drive. 

Wednesday - I started out at Havana Nights and caught a bit of Bobby Gangloff (of Bobby and the Blisters) rockin' the piano there. He is always so entertaining with what I perceive to be a type of  New Orleans style of singing and playing - and he's a really nice guy too.

I had run into some friends at Havana and we soon joined up again at Waldo's on the beach where Voodoo was playing outside by the pool. Wonderful weather, beautiful night and oh my, such great sounds! Jimmy Smith and Lee Rathbun of course and Rick Collins singing and drumming. There was an outstanding bass player but I didn't get his name.  Kent Taylor Brown sat in on guitar, (and probably vocals) but I arrived just as he was wrapping up that set so I missed it. It was a perfect Florida night, black sky and lots of stars to be seen from the deck.

Thursday was Thanksgiving so I didn't get my Kent Taylor Brown fix at the weekly Live Music Party at Dockside Grille. I guess he thought spending time with Emmy and the family was more important than catering to the needs of his fans! Imagine that...

But oh well, I caught up with him on Friday night at the Eagles on Old Dixie. I was joined there by Melinda McKee Branand and we both sang a couple with Kent before cruising over to Kelly's Irish Pub on Miracle Mile to hear the inimitable Vince Caporale and Ed D'Angelo of Deja Vu. They were especially hot and in fact that's how they ended the evening - they had the whole room up dancing to "Hot Hot Hot!"

It is just amazing how much great live music there is to be enjoyed in Vero in just a span of 4 days. But wait...there's more!

The very busy, Marschall Van Doren played at the Vero Beach Vets on Saturday evening and I got to do a few songs with him there. And then on Sunday, I thought I'd go by the Moose Lodge up on 43rd Ave. to see what was happening at the weekly jam session.  I am so glad I did!

All the guys from Tightrope were there with several other musicians  sitting in. There was of course, the infamous Jimmy Smith on bass and vocals, always a pleasure to hear; Marshall Law sitting in on drums when I arrived with Tightrope drummer, Dave Goddard on hand nearby; Albert Andrews, drummer with Stevie and the Hotrods, played some acoustic guitar and sang "Barefoot Bluejeans Night" for one, but also did several more songs - and did them justice. Also in on the jam was a really accomplished lead guitarist, Holt Sutherland. When I heard the sounds he was making on that guitar, I had to get a little closer just to watch him do it!

The  musician that I always enjoy hearing was the piano player, Mark Farner. I got up close again because its a thrill to see his hands doing their work on those keys! Mark is gigging with bands in the area, like Wall Manning and the Revelers and Dave and the Wave at Waldo's. And of course, Tightrope. To get his schedule, E mail him at markpianoman@gmail.com. 

The grand finale was amazingly good and I knew I was going to like it when Jeff Schoff of Tightrope,started singing a song I didn't know but really liked called "Just To Satisfy You." Jimmy Smith accompanied him on vocals and all the musicians did solos including Mr. Rick Nelson on slide guitar.

Somehow it all came together on that number and it was what jams are all about - suddenly it gets exciting and the music comes alive. Thanks guys, I hope I get to hear you do that again sometime.