A musical thing happened on the road to Hometeam New Year’s Rally. A bunch of musical things, actually. Add two more to the list. Savi Fernandez and band invade the Dunedin Brewery for two nights as we inch closer and closer to the Hometeam Rally. Well, it seems like inches, because we can’t hardly wait!…
2016 has been a superb year for the Savi Fernandez Band. Among the great steps forward were a headlining show at House of Blues Kissimmee, a tremendous set at Orange Blossom Jamboree, and a simply stunning set at Purple Hatter’s Ball plus great sit-ins with Voodoo Visionary, Corbitt-Clampitt Experience and Roosevelt Collier and Friends. In…
Guess whose birthday is today? Go ahead. Need a hint? Feliz cumpleaños! One more? OK. Happy earthstrong, bredda! Ya, mon, we’re talking about Savi Fernandez, the dynamic musical spirit from Orlando who is celebrating another ellipse around the sun. So what should he do for his birthday? First, you need to know that his wonderful…
Savi Fernandez capped off an extremely successful 2015 with a solo tour in Denver in December. His superb album From My Heart was released in April, and he and his band have played dozens of shows. Greg Jungbluth plays bass, and Joey Lanna is the drummer of this fine band playing their brand of reggae,…
The story of Snarky Puppy sounds absurd on the face of it. Everything seems so illogical. Suppose that someone told you, ten years ago, that a band of excellent musicians would expand to 18 during recording sessions and at least a dozen on tour, record live with a studio audience, release albums on both CD…
Perhaps elsewhere Friday the 13th was unlucky, but at Gov-Fest good fortune and wonderful music surrounded us all day long (OK, it was a little chilly for the Floridians). It was a remarkable day, with the two side-by-side stages keeping the party going continuously from 11 AM to 3:30 AM, at which point festivities shifted…
If you have ever waded through more than a couple of my reviews, then you know I am given to superlatives and lots of adjectives. Make no mistake: I am far less a critic than a cheerleader. I try to set myself up for success rather than failure, seeking out musical events that glisten with…
In the current model for job evaluations, assessments, and ratings, the evaluator is encouraged to use the Oreo method: praise some things that are good that you wish to encourage, then offer suggestions for areas were improvement can be made, and close with more praise. With that model in mind, here goes my assessment of…
OK, Hometeam on three. One! Two! Three! HOMETEAM! The 3rd Hometeam New Year’s Rally is in the books. Great weather, great organization, great people, 27 musical performances (26 of which I liked). [Photos to follow.] I didn’t miss a note. I actually rolled in to the Maddox Ranch in Lakeland Christmas night and got a…
I don’t even earn partial credit for attending this event. I missed all 13 performances on Friday and 23 on Saturday. From that standpoint, I can only tell you about the music we did get to hear, but we can still talk about the Herculean effort put on by Captain Mark Glenn and his troops to…