Just as I was beginning to sustain energy towards recording Breathe I was thrown a curveball that needed hitting. My thirty year high school reunion was scheduled for the weekend of August 7th and 8th and an "all-star band" was being assembled to perform a couple of sets of music from the era. And when I say all-star, I'm not exaggerating. The team consisted of outstanding players from our hometown class who have continued to hone their musical craft as pros and semi-pros with long-term demonstrated excellence and a love of music; Chris Amick (guitar), Jeff Anderson (bass/vocals), John Boggess (sound/vocals/bass), Lee Hines (drums), Laura Sypolt (vocals/keys), and Tim Sypolt (vocals/keys/guitar). I had to sign on and prepare to work with these outstanding musicians from a distance as the local team rehearsed at Shindog Studios in WV.

The band was christened The B.O.A.R.D. Our high school mascot being the Red Dragons, the band's name is an acronym for Band Of Aging Red Dragons, both accurate and fun.

Two one-hour sets were selected and sent my way for personal rehearsal. Selections included:

• Foot Stompin' Music
• Sweet Emotion
• Taking Care of Business
• Long Train Runnin'
• Stormy Monday
• One of These Nights
• Stop Dragging My Heart Around
• Rock and Roll All Night
• La Grange
• Just The Way You Are
• You Really Got Me
• Listen To The Music
• Wonderful Tonight
• Hard To Handle
• Honky Tonk Woman
• Rhiannon
• Fly Like An Eagle
• Walk This Way
• Tush
• Freebird

Yeah, we're talking some nostalgic groovers here!

I decided to keep it simple, take just one guitar (my 2001 American Deluxe Strat) and a handful of tasty effects (Dunlop GCB-80 volume pedal, Boss CS-2 Compressor, Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer with aNaLoG.MaN Silver Mod, Boss DS-1 with aNaLoG.MaN Pro Midrange Mod, and Boss DD-3 Digital Delay with aNaLoG.MaN High Cut Mod). I called the good Dr. Boggess and arranged to borrow an amp and a backup guitar; Jeff's latest Partscaster, by the way, is another outstanding guitar. I traded several emails with the team and we decided who would take what parts on what songs, but always knowing the situation would be wonderfully fluid. We met up for a final full rehearsal on Thursday, August 6th, at Shindog Studios for a run-through of each set and final tweaking. The rehearsal went very well, the band sounded good, we added Shout to the list, and we were ready to go.

We kicked off our first set at 8:00 pm on Friday night with a nice crowd of our classmates and others at The Barge in Charleston, WV. We smoked it nicely right from the beginning, with an occasional wart but no train wrecks and lot of energy. As we were wrapping up the first set with You Really Got Me, someone stepped behind me on stage, dropped off a sax case, and asked if we'd be taking a break soon. I relayed this was the last song of the set as I turned and saw fellow SAHS alum and Charleston sax legend Doug Payne. He replied he'd like to do a couple of songs with us in the second set - no problem there as Doug is a monster player. We fired the second set up at 10:00 pm with Doug joining us for three numbers; as I suspected would happen, Doug tore it up and helped us take the energy to the next level. We finished strong with the crowd on their feet dancing feverishly to Shout.

What a privilege it was to play with these wonderful musicians and lovely people for our classmates of 30 years ago - and a host of other audience members who dropped by and joined in the festivities. The evening was over too soon; as we broke down and loaded up I couldn't help but thinking how much fun it would be to do it again. Who knows, perhaps it will happen...