I first heard Mark Knopfler the way just about everyone else did, on the Dire Straits song “Sultans of Swing” back in 1978. Upon first impression, and it wasn’t just mine, I wondered who was playing those cool Fender Stratocaster…

Dear Music Lover,

As an independent local professional musician, I can’t put into words the gratitude that I feel for those who come out and listen to me perform music, both my songs and the covers of songs by other…

1984 was an important year in my life (the year my Keys adventure began). Although still in my early twenties, I was already a veteran road musician. I had been performing for a few years in a duo with Sallie…

I have devoted more than a few hours of time over the past several years learning the game of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. I consider myself an above-average player (yeah, who doesn’t?). I have put in the time learning the…

Last week I had the good fortune to see John Fogerty live in concert at the Hard Rock Live. As many of you know, Fogerty was the singer and songwriter behind the legendary group Creedence Clearwater Revival, as well as…

It seems hard to believe, especially for me, that I’ve been performing music professionally for more than 30 years. My aspiring amateur status dates back even a few more years. Aside from qualifying me as a geezer, having played music…

Not even a week after I wrote about the horrific and tragic murders in Aurora and Conch Key, caring people’s hearts were broken again as a hate-filled murderer took the lives of six others before losing his own at a…

At the risk of oversimplifying a much larger problem (and way over-generalizing as well – a tragic flaw of anyone who claims to be a writer), there are two kinds of people in this world: those who care about their…

My first introduction to Clarence Clemons was probably the same as it was for most everybody. In 1975, Bruce Springsteen released his Born to Run album. On the cover, in black and white, was a portrait of black and white…

   I was a space brat.

   There was no better place to be a kid in the 1960s than Cape Canaveral (then Cape Kennedy). Rockets went off in my backyard. Not just Titans and Deltas, but honest-to-God Saturns. There was nothing…

As we sit and bask in the afterglow of another lobster mini-season, that special time between it and the opening of regular lobster season, let’s pause for a moment and reflect on all the crawling crustaceans who gave up their…

Life in the Fabulous Florida Keys – it can certainly foster an island mentality among its residents. Sometimes that’s a bad thing, like when idiot regimes and dictators in faraway places like Iran and North Korea threaten the rest of…