They say you should never meet your heroes. You get older and jaded and assume that you were young and easily impressed. You’re older now and have life all figured out. Then you get the chance, and you assume you’re going to be disappointed. They couldn’t be that cool; but you realize you were dead wrong. Your hero is somehow even better than you imagined. So talented, just like you remember, but also smart, funny, and kind.

You hero is somehow even better than you imagined.

As a bit of background, most of you know that Al was, long ago, a musician in a Cincinnati band called Clabbergirl. One of his bands’ musical idols – or, as he would tell it, one of the most famous, influential and well respected musicians of the last 30 years – was Rob Fetters, the guitarist/vocalist for a variety of bands including The Raisins, The Bears, psychodots, and of course, his solo work. Clabbergirl was such a huge fan of Rob and his bands that they organized a tribute concert for them in the late 1990’s, with nearly every other local band of note showing up to also pay tribute. Rob has made consistently excellent music and influenced generations of musicians.

Rob still makes clever, catchy, hook driven pop/rock music. He no longer does club tours or plays big venues. Instead, he plays intimate, live shows, interspaced with stories from his career and the business, in private homes for small groups.

We were lucky enough to have Rob stop by on his way from Cincinnati to Vancouver, BC. We shared a wonderful evening with him performing in our cozy barn for a small group of friends and family, with our animals looking on.

He still has the magic.