In case you thought pilots were just a bunch of drunks, here’s proof that they’re oh-so-much-more…

High time pilots prove they can remember more than just the checklist… Setting up at Bruce and Sabine’s house is simply plug-n-play. Bruce keeps his drums on standby, always ready to go.

We’ve had pilot parties before, complete with a bass-playing jet pilot, an ex-cop turned jet jockette pianist and assorted pilot groupies who mull about discussing …(wait for it)… airplanes. The conversations were always lively but the music would fall apart after the third or fourth note. You know, you can invite talent into your house, but low(er) time pilots haven’t gotten that flying out of their system long enough to pull themselves together and do something else… like play the instrument they brought to the party. Too much talk about this charter operator, that particular aircraft and the almost-below-minimums approach one brave soul had to make in IMC at the world’s shortest runway.

These guys were serious though.

Old guitarists never die, they just get a chair and play on… That’s The Man of The House on his Limited Edition 1988 Takemine. What a beautiful-sounding guitar… alas, The Man wants a Fender Telecaster - says he can play for hours on that Telecaster… spent almost every moment of daylight this weekend drooling over a Telecaster at Sam Ash.

Guitar Angst

Do you know what happens when an ’60’s era ex-band man goes into a music store and falls in love with a hottie guitar he wants desperately but won’t buy? Why he comes home with a percussion machine, of course! And as you wonder what happened to the tambourine he said he would get for you, he points to the percussion machine and proudly states, “I got this for you!”

Never mind the fact you have absolutely no idea what it does or how it works. What he really means to say is, “Gee, honey, I saw this really neat gadget, I can use to make music and I can’t figure it out… can you make it work for me?”

I guess it’s time to put his Takemine up on Ebay… Anything to keep him off the keyboards, away from some electronic percussion machine and on the strings…

In the distance is Ken, bass-player-extraordinairre and over there on keyboards is Ben. The Leader of the Band… Ben holds it all together marvelously. Our trumpeteer is off-camera, on the couch.

What a night of incredible energy. Not one song fell apart. I was approaching nirvana listening to these guys move seamlessly from rhythm and blues to instrumentals to 50’s pop. That kind of music is the result of years of practice.

So the next time you hop on an airplane, don’t automatically assume your pilots are lazy, sex-mongering drunks. Some of them are damn good musicians too!