Man, that was a great night at Lake Sumter!!

Thank you to everyone who turned up and turned out! The band was firing on all cylinders and the ladies were incredible, as usual. How did everyone feel about the new stage setup? Are you enjoying having the gals up front as much as we are??  How about Jeremy practically snapping his upright bass in half in the middle of the show??? That’s the level of high-octane performance dedication that ol’ Jay Dubs and the gang are bringing these days. 

Speaking of which, the March calendar has been officially released and we’ve got some great shows on the docket over the next few weeks!

In addition to our usual stops at Lake Sumter (March 8th), Brownwood (March 15th) and Spanish Springs (March 25th), we’ve added two full band shows at Glenview Country Club (March 12th & 23rd) in an effort to replace our regular dinner shows at the now-defunct Katie Belle’s. We absolutely love the staff at Glenview and the food is truly incredible.

Head over to www.GlenviewCountryClub.com for all the glorious details.

The gals and I also have some fun trio shows lined up!! Including nights at our favorite spots - Havana Country Club (March 4th), Redsauce (March 7th & 21st) and Ednas’ On The Green (March 20th) - and, for the first time ever, the legendary Blue Star’s brand new restaurant, bar and nightspot: HÄOS On Church, in the heart of Downtown Orlando (March 11th).

Those of you who know Blue, know how much she means to the performing arts community in the City Beautiful so we are beyond excited to play this gorgeous new location. Those of you who don’t, absolutely need to.

Villagers, if you’re looking for a change of scenery and would like to accompany us, shoot us a message and we can help make suggestions for parking and shops to visit during the day. You can make a whole trip out of it!

Orlando area friends, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Make your reservations ASAP!

April is carrying quite a few show surprises as well with the addition of nights at Lake Nona’s incredible Boxi Park (April 16th) and Orlando’s own mid-century concert hall, The Plaza Live (April 8th), for their Front Porch Concert series!

Delights guitar and bass heroes, Rob Mola & Chuck Zayas, just played a show here with their stellar blues project, the Midnight Ramblers, on the 25th and had nothing but great things to say about the whole set up.

Villagers, go ahead and clear those calendars for April 23rd at Lake Sumter. This special date marks the exact night that Johnny (then known as Johnny Dee and the Starlights) made his Villages debut on the Sumter stage wayyyy back in 2016. We will be celebrating our 5-year anniversary in grand fashion and we expect all of our incredible Villages family to be out in full effect!

On the personnel front, we have some sad news and some happy news as well. Our favorite wild-man and all-around musical genius, Simon Palombi, has accepted a studio recording position in Cleveland, OH and will be moving back to his hometown in May of this year. We are all incredibly sad to see Simon go but we certainly wish him the best in all of his future projects. You can catch his last two shows with the band on March 12th at Glenview and March 15th at Brownwood.

Quite coincidentally, joining him on those last two shows will be our brand new drummer, Mr. Ian Clarey! Ian is an in-demand performer at several Disney and Universal theme parks and is involved with a number of incredible projects all over the Central Florida area. We have already played a few private gigs with Ian and love the dynamic rhythmic style he is bringing to the material. Not to worry, Randy Coole fans, our boy will still be very much in mix! Where would we be without that sweet low-end and impeccable falsetto?!

And, hey, while we’re talking about band members, we are always looking to add new talents and faces to the ever-growing Delights family. As such, we will be conducting auditions for multiple sub and full-time positions all throughout the next few months. If you know any multi-instrumentalists or vocalists that you think would be a good fit, please feel free to send them our way!

The best email for audition requests is JohnnyWildAndTheDelights@gmail.com.

We’d like to see a headshot, resume and a video sample of what it is they do best.

Lastly, keep an eye out in the next few weeks for a truly incredible announcement that may or may not involve a large boat and your favorite vintage rockers! Oh jeez, have I said too much??

As always, we appreciate all of your support, feedback and patronage. We absolutely love rocking for you fine folks and have a lot more coming your way in the very near future.

RAVE ON!

~Jonathan D. Wild