This weekend will be Erol’s last Sarasota-area performance with the Clover’s Revenge. He will have one more performance with us in Tampa and then we will have a new guitarist named Zach Johnson, an incredible guitarist with Irish roots and an excellent leprechaun impression, but more on that later. It has been a great ride with Erol and we will miss him terribly. He will play with us again on rare occasions, but he has started to become more serious about his pursuit of a professorship in classical guitar.
Erol first started with us in April of 2016. Although he never played Irish music, his talent and musicality made him an easy fit. Although his classical background helped him to become an elegant and impressive player, it was his love of heavy metal and county music that really brought new energy and sound to the band’s style. With his masterful solos and solid accompaniment, he helped usher in Clover’s new punk-themed Irish music. He even tried singing lead, reluctantly at first, but after awhile, his renditions of Flogging Molly, Violent Femmes, and the Ramones were huge crowd pleasers.
With Erol’s help, the band also produced our first CD, as well as lay down our music for our promotional CD. We will have played our first shows at The Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda, Courigan’s in St. Pete, Flanagan’s in Dunedin, the Shamrock in Sarasota, but we will always remember our crazy performances at McCabe’s in Bradenton, where we all of our inner punk heroes seemed to come out and we would make the audience howl!
Thank you, Dr. Oz, for being a superstar. I promise we will play that Panterra cover one day.
