Since forming EVOLUTION several months ago, Han and I have seen the world come to Amelia Island as we have played at most of the venues in Fernandina Beach and even some in Yulee, Florida. One of our favorites (at least in the summertime) is playing out on the deck at Sandy Bottoms in Fernandina Beach. The deck seats about 120 people and is right at Main Beach, a popular location for locals and tourists alike. Obviously the town is a trendy vacation destination and Sandy Bottoms is a must visit for those vacationing and living on Amelia Island.

One of the fun things we like to do with our dining audience is throw in some trivia on which band or performer sang a particular song. Interacting with the audience at our shows leads to
conversations about where they are from, how they go to the island and what they like (or do not like). Thank God they all like us as can be witnessed from our tip bowl. Over the months we’ve met a lot of wonderful people from all over the country, wedding parties from West Virginia and Minnesota, large families from Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Minnesota; folks from Louisiana, Oregon, Arizona, you name it. Oh, and yes, we have welcomed international visitors from places like Germany, Scandinavia, Canada, Scotland and Cuba as well.

Obviously we enjoy an audience that interacts with us and last Saturday evening, a nice couple stayed through the whole show and had many requests, especially of songs we liked and had in our repertoire. Now our total play list probably runs some 1,500 to 2,000 songs, but carrying them around on gigs is a completely different story. And asking for us to remember every lyric from all those songs would be asking a tad too much. But to anyone it was obvious they liked music and were enjoying our song selections.

Afterward, I talked with them in more depth and found that they were from Milwaukee. I grew up 30 miles south of Milwaukee in Racine, Wisconsin. It turned out that the guy was also a musician, slightly younger than me, but knows, or knows of, many of the guys I used to do gigs and recordings with up there. That evening turned out to be a bit of home for me. It was nice.

I didn’t catch their names, but if they’re reading this I’d like to thank them for the nostalgia and Han and I both would like to thank them and all our new “friends” for stopping by Sandy Bottoms during their visit to our little Island Paradise.