But the email was returned.

Very excited to see this film coming to fruition!

Hello:

I attended James Madison University, (1979-1982) and my sister
attended UVA at the same time Skip Castro and Johnny Sportcoat were so
popular.

I was really excited to get a link to the website, and finally see a
wonderful tribute to such great entertainers and talented musicians!

I had written Danny Beirne a few years ago, and he was kind enough to
"catch me up" on 20 some years of life after (and in my case) without
Skip.

Did you know he almost caught one of the 911 flights, but was somehow
delayed and avoided getting on the plane?

My most memorable show was seeing Skip and NRBQ play at The (former?)
Elbow Room in Harrisonburg, Danny and Terry Adams both tore up this
ragged upright piano, (but in a good way) and of all the musical
performances I've seen, this is in the top five.

I wish I had appreciated the music more, at the time, I thought it
would go on forever, and as time has passed, good live bands seem
like a thing of the past.

I am excited to see this film, and I hope for great sucess in this, if
nothing else, not necessarily to warm up old memories, but to convey
to younger people that musical performance takes talent and
appreciation of your roots.

I was struck by these comments as well, this was me EXACTLY at that time!

> "I learned a tremendous amount of what I know about music from Skip
Castro and the Casuals," says Herz. "I had never heard anything like
it. Like so many of us, I had been brought up on Boston and Kansas and
Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd. That's how I began a musical
education that I've tried to never let go of."
>
> Producer Grafmuller experienced a similar awakening. "The clubs in
Northern Virginia were mostly heavy metal," he says. "Then I went to
UVA, and my eyes were wide open-- all this great blues and roots rock
music. They were phenomenal musicians. It was getting a free music
lesson just watching these guys.

I have to say that if I didn't intersect with that "scene" (and I was
going to school farther South but transferred) I would never have
bothered searching out great music.

I also DJd during the eighties, and every week in Virginia Beach
during Summer, On Sunday night, the Fort Story Army base was open to
civilians, we took business away from the civilian clubs.

The Skip Castro EPs and LPs (especially "Jenny Takes A Ride") were
staples, played them every week, so well recorded that they sounded
like the band was playing live, and people hit the dance floor in a
frenzy.

Another side note, I live in Maine, and still play drums with a group
of older cats, (age 50 something and up) and I would like to think
part of the reason is seeing these great live acts!

Other thoughts I had here:

http://billyward.yuku.com/topic/2296/t/The-Hook-Local-Rockumentary.html

Sam

JMU 82

Mount Desert, Maine