By Eric Darrow

Ask anyone who knows me and I can be rather harsh when it comes to live music. I recently had a need for something new, I wanted soft and powerful, I needed some hard jammin’ blues and so the fun began with a search on Daytona Rocks.com.  First on my agenda was a great sub so we stopped at Manzano’s Beachside Deli in New Smyrna Beach for sandwiches then headed on to eat and listen to ETC at Traders on Flagler in New Smyrna Beach on the back patio. They are an acoustic band from Flagler County consisting of Joe Ricker formerly of Southbound on guitar, Keith Blackmon from Black Hawk Station on electric bass and Cristi Kamps providing Lead Vocals. (ETCtrio.com)

Personally I like good solid harmony and when you couple great harmony with quite possibly the smoothest vocals around. Kapow! I found myself singing without reserve, and just plane groovin’.  They played from 7 until 11pm and happy hour was 2-4-1 from 8 to 10p, a plus in my book.  This was our second time seeing these three and they just keeping getting better. I will definitely be back.

Next we crossed the street to the OM Bar for Little Mike and the Tornado’s a blues band with Mike on keys and mouth harp and a lead guitar who took me back to the true meaning of rock and roll. Again I was impressed and felt like we hit the jackpot. When Little Mike played that harmonica is wasn’t a slur. This band was tight and reminded me of the origin of Rock and Roll baby. Everyone was jim jammin’ with the band and dancin’ in their seats and on the floor.