Rob Garcia Has His Hands Full

You might have seen Rob Garcia, a New York born entertainer who sings and plays guitar at just about ANY tiki bar or restaurant between Tampa and Miami for the last six or seven years.

You might have even seen his one-man theater show “Rock n Roll Love Letter,” a 70 year look at the music that changed our lives which was brought to theaters by Sun Events (www.sunevents.com) a now national event promoter which started from very modest shows right here in Florida.

What you may NOT know, and most certainly SHOULD, is that Sun Events is doing a national tour in tribute to the music that was played at the Woodstock concert. It’s called the “Peace and Love Tour” and it’s coming to a city near you! 

“It’s more an electrified ‘circus’ environment and vibe, than it is your ‘typical’ theater show,”  Garcia explains. “What I mean by that is, from the time the doors open, in the lobby there is spin art, tie dye shirts for sale, a strolling musician or two...Woodstock was an arts and crafts festival. Then once you enter the theater and sit down, you have me, opening the show doing a 60s acoustic, singer/songwriter set, after which a band (Paisley Craze) comes out and does an hour and a half performance. I am also featured on a couple of numbers during that set. There are not many touring ‘experiences’ like it. You can find out more at: sunevents.com/peace-love-tour.”

As if a 40 city national tour was not already enough, you also started a band, yes? “Yup, It seemed to me that the writing was on the wall. I was lucky enough to get involved with Sun Events at just the right time when their main guy Joe Gallimore, took a long shot on a local musician who might have become a nuisance to him by callin’ and emailin’ him all the time, in essence sayin’ ‘PUT ME IN, COACH!’ He eventually did, and it turned out good, and we did it again and that one man show turned into ‘Rock n Roll Love Letter.’ Fast forward to today, and as good as ‘Love Letter’ is as a one man show, Sun Events was going to make it bigger. So, I added a female front person, Erika Flaskamp who can just as easily sing Janis Joplin and knock it out of the park as she can something more delicate and subtle which is not so easy to do and put it across emotionally to the audience. I got lucky with her. The rhythm section is Jason Stander on drums and Santiago Rodriguez on bass.  Combined, they deliver power, precise timing, and an energy that can easily be felt in the last row of any theater we play.”

The Jukebox Assassins

What do you think of when you hear “Jukebox Assassins”?  Chances are, you never even HEARD those two words put together. Well, now you have a chance to say, Hey! Let’s go check out Jukebox Assassins at {insert your favorite SWF watering hole here}.

Jukebox Assassins is a band that from its inception, wanted to put its own twist on the music it made.

Whether a cover or an original, no matter what era or genre, the Assassins will make it their own. “Emotionally, and musically we start with the guitars, more often than not a little bit edgy to give the material that high energy you can only get from being edgy. We also try and make it rhythmically interesting despite perhaps the composition not having started off that way. No matter what, you’ll ether be dancing or tapping your foot, guaranteed.  The male/female vocal team assures you we can sing just about anything, but everybody else in the band sings too so there are harmonies galore!”

 To find out more visit: www.facebook.com/Jukebox-Assassins-258803701579204/

Robert Garcia wishes to thank:

 Joe Gallimore from Sun Events for taking a “shot” on him,

WhirlwindUSA for making the most road-worthy EVERYTHING on the planet (whirlwindusa.com),

Chris Trifilio of Chemistry Design Werks for making the best pedalbards EVER (chemistrydesignwerks.com),

Colleen Turley for the photo credits in this article and for all that you do (Blackbirdstudios.photoshelter.com).