Cannonball

Cannonball, as Pete Cimbalo (bass) put it, "is the Asia of local club bands".  Apparantly Asia is a prog-rock "supergroup" from the eighties that belonged in the seventies.  We are a collection of four guys all with other gigs but it might be a stretch to call us super, although we have our moments.  Pete and I formed the group with Andon Davis (guitar) and John Carpendar (drums) who are both extremely accomplished musicians.  We share one gig only, the last Friday of each month at FitzGerald's nightclub in Berwyn, IL.

I met Pete Cimbalo in 1986 at a cavernous nightclub in Bloomington, IN called Jake's.  It was a Tuesday nightand my band was booked for our first-ever engagement in the town.  That's the way we did it.  We'd get a gig in a music club on an off-night for more or less no money and if they liked us we would come back again and again till we could make some scratch.  Jake's holds about five hundred people.  Big stage, sound system, lights, the works.  Nine o'clock rolls around and there are two people in attendance, Pete and his girlfriend.  We played two full sets and they stayed to listen to the whole show.  Pete let us crash at his studio apartment that night.  We came back to town every other month for the next three years and stayed at Pete's each time.  Pete played in a local college band at the time, One Run.  His drummer was Rob Pierce, later of the Modern Day Saints and the YellowHammers.  Pete and I became more acquainted when we both lived in LA in the early nineties. He has been with several groups over the years:  Lost Luggage; Diplomat 6; Something For Joey and has most recently released a string of great records under the moniker Pie Eyed Pete.

I saw Andon Davis play guitar one night at FitzGerald's in 2004.  After the show I asked if he would give me guitar lessons.  From then on we crossed paths a number of times and he eventually played all the lead guitar and mandolin on my record, Our Separate Ways.  There are players as good as Andon I suppose but none better.  He has played and recorded with Trigger Gospel, The Riptones, Sally Timms, and many, many more.

John Carpendar should be a band leader.  He has the chops and presence of Buddy Rich.  He can hold a room spellbound.  An audience seems inclined to focus on a lead singer or at times an instrumentalist, like a guitar player.  When John's around the room focuses on him.  When he takes over the rest of the band follows as he will roll, crash, thunder and swell while you hang on like riding a bull.  He also has the ability to lay down the softest brush strokes like he's painting a water color portrait.  He has played with such folks as the Phantom Helsman, Michael McDermott, and the Andon Davis Situation to name a few.