For the Love of Styx

A couple years ago, I started watching the show Freaks and Geeks on Netflix. I'm a child of the seventies. I love my BeeGees and Barry Manilow and a slew of others from that era. Freaks and Geeks fed and fueled that love. The pilot episode featured a song I had heard probably a million times, but never really paid much attention to...Come Sail Away. I liked it on the show, so I gave it a listen. Pretty good. So I bought their greatest hits CD at Walmart.

​How had I never really paid attention to this band?!

Since then, that's all that's been in my CD player in my car. (Yes, I still have one of those.) And I got to see them in concert over the summer, along with REO Speedwagon and Don Felder (from the Eagles). I purchased tickets for the nosebleed section, but won two through a web-based contest. My son and I got to sit twenty rows from the stage. What an experience!!

The songs have opened up a whole new world for me and started telling me a story that I knew I had to share. So for a little over a year and a half, I've been developing and working on a new series I've titled Star Sailors. My main character, Jameson Kendrick, transforms from a terrible member of the Renegade gang to the owner and operator of a fleet of space passenger liners. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the gist. It's basically Star Trek meets The Love Boat. (You may laugh, but it's awesome.) The first one, of course, will be dedicated to the source of inspiration...my beloved Styx.

I celebrated a birthday several days ago. As we were coming home from the festivities, I had a rather exciting notification on Facebook. I had asked a question on Styx's fan page, and Lawrence Gowan, keyboardist extraordinaire, replied by video. What an extraordinary present! The video is below. Definitely worth watching...even just for Gowan's amazing playing.

Rock on, y'all.

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