Greetings everyone,
Thoughts and words coming from Miramar Beach between Panama City and Destin, closer to Destin. Sue and I are here in these parts for four days. Thanks to a good friend, Lawrence Bertoldi, we had/have a couple of gigs. The first gig was last night, February 3 at the 30A Songwriter Radio Music & Coffee in Santa Rosa Beach. It was a fun evening of song, story and coffee. They had coffee I had not seen before, Willie’s Remedy.
Before the show got started and folks were walking in, I recognized a gentleman that I had not seen in years. It turned out to be nearly forty years. His name is Kevin Kelly. He owned a music venue in Baltimore called No Fish Today, where I performed between 1979-1982. Kevin’s generous ways and number of gigs he gave my band, Billy Kemp & The Paradise Pickers, helped me sharpen my music performance skills, bar and general crowd control navigation. No Fish Today was the place to play in Baltimore in those days.
The 30A Songwriter Radio Music & Coffee is a fabulous listening room with things to look at, nibble on and hydrate. I didn’t count how many radios there are, many of them vintage, but there may have been thirty or more scattered about. Some seemed in retirement, and others ready to be turned on. I assume they are the collection of Josette Rhodes, the owner and chief instigator. She was a pleasure to spend time with. She greeted us when we arrived. She served us a coffee and a tea, and later a beer. She was the stage manager, and she mixed the sound for the live audience and the radio. She records and streams her live performance events. There is even an app. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/22386553.
If you are ever in the Panhandle of Florida, the 30A Songwriter Radio Coffee & Music is a must stop to have a sip, a smile and a song.
Thanks to Lawrence Bertoldi and Josette Rhoads…
