Baystreet celebrated its 36th anniversary as a band with a special performance at the Blue Jay Listening Room in Jacksonville Beach on July 12.
The local band has developed quite the following during its 36-year run, but it continues to find new ways to introduce itself onto the music scene, as it was the first time playing at the Blue Jay Listening Room.
According to John Miller, bass player and lead singer with Baystreet, the anniversary showcase came about after months of discussions and ironing out the details with Blue Jay owner and operator Cara Murphy.
“Cara and her team do a great job of working with and treating the musicians really well,” Miller said.
The night was a memorable one for Miller and Baystreet, who even received an encore ovation from the audience after already having performed for about two and a half hours.
“I didn’t go in expecting we would play that long, but the soloists were just playing really well, and I just let them do their thing,” Miller said. “Sometimes you just have to let the music speak and take over.”
Baystreet plays a mixture of blues and classic rock for a unique sound to their music.
“It’s such an amazing feeling after all these years, that people still come out and want to hear us play our music,” Miller said. “There’s nothing like it.”
Miller is an original member of the band from when Baystreet was first created in 1987 and has felt his share of magical nights over the years, and the 36th anniversary performance was up there.
“There are those moments when the music and the audience is one and you just know because it feels like you’ve entered another space where the music takes over,” Miller said. “And you can’t find yourself thinking about it for too long or else you’ll lose it, but you just know its there and you keep playing and enjoying it.”
Mike Hollingsworth plays piano in the band and joined in 1992, while Cliff Huber joined shortly after in 1995 as the band’s saxophonist and Mark Gibson plays guitar and joined in the early 2000s.
Baystreet rotates its drummer and Greg Hersey was the one who played the role during the 36th anniversary gig.
Miller has experienced some unique opportunities over the years thanks to being a part of Baystreet, including recording in some of the big-time recording studios in Nashville and having gone on tour.
However, there is nothing that hits his soul more as a musician than playing local gigs in front of a live audience.
“I’ve played on dead nights where there are just a handful of people and I’ve played in front of 30,000 people,” Miller said. “Of course, you’d rather play in front of the bigger crowd, but it’s all about the connection you create with your audience through your music, no matter the size.”
Nights that celebrate anniversaries like that are chances for Miller to reflect on how much of a pull music has had on him throughout his life and how it has made him the person he is today.
“I started playing piano when I was 5 years old and played in my first band when I was 13,” Miller said.
Miller has always been one of the primary song writers for the band and he has found lots of inspiration for his lyrics from his own life, so in a way Baystreet’s songs reflect who the band members are themselves.
“The song we closed with is called “The Future,” and it came from me thinking about my 9-year-old son and the future we’ll have together,” Miller said. “That’s the type of effect music can have on people.”
