First off I want to say thank you to the Lovell family who allowed me to play music at Lovell's of Lake Forest restaurant for over 10 years. The restaurant opened in 1998. Live music in the Captain's Quarters was made a "thing" in October of 2004 with Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays when we first kicked if off. We kept that "thing" going every Friday and Saturday until March 2015. That stint recently ended as the building was sold to a medical university. We met some very wonderful people, and created many memories and friends there. Thank you Darice and Jay for giving me a place to practice music in front of a warm and responsive (and well fed) crowd and allowing me to get better. I probably played in the Captain's Quarters over 280 times. I have to admit sometimes it was hard work too, but we had a whole lot of fun most of the time. We had the pleasure to play dozens of fine parties in the Odyssey Room too. Many with very close family and friends.
I'll revisit the Lovell's of Lake Forest topic periodically in my blogs later when I want to reminisce. Now I want to thank all of the players who I've partnered in duos or trios with over the years, and who contributed to the overall music scene down there including Steve Wall, Randi Fox, Paul Allodi, John Metzger, John Devlin, Marlon St. John, James Wayman, Brian James, Scott Madden, Liz Berg, Andre Howard, Herman Winkler, David Thornton, Ira Sussman, Grateful Gary Gibula, Chris Grant, Dave D'alessandro, Nick Gonzalez, Gene Tenuta, and John from 4-man Acoustic Band. I've played down there with every one of these professional musicians over the 10 years.
I know I'm forgetting many others whom I've had the pleasure of sitting in with along the way too, but friends Donna Herula, Tony Nardiello, Tony Mandolini, and Phil Goldman come to mind. I'll make another post and thank some of the bands and individuals I've had the pleasure to hire over years, and there have been a lot of them. I want to also thank Derrick Suede Stout for holding down the fort in the Captain's Quarters on many, many a Friday night for several years. He and his partner Suzie had a great run at Lovell's also.
Lastly before I'm remiss, I want to thank the Burgesses for all their support at Lovell's especially at the end of 2014. We certainly worked and partied hard at the end of last year. The recent concert we performed in their yard in Bannockburn on Saturday August 1st was a wonderful success. In retrospect I think it was as close to perfect as we could get it. Jeff had a rough start this year with heart surgery in February. He had to take it easy all Spring. It was great to see him in good spirits last week. JoAnn was as fabulous as ever. I just wanted to give a shout out to their family.
Time for bed for me. Call or text me at 708-415-6410 for booking / availabilty. Some Saturdays are still open this month and throughout Sept. & Oct. I'm looking forward to booking into autumn soon.
