Buddy Gibson & Richard Hombre Price at JR's Old Packinghouse Cafe

Can't say the house was full -- it surely wasn't. Just a laid-back, off-season evening at JR's Old Packinghouse Cafe in Sarasota. But the music was outstanding and deserved a bigger audience. Buddy Gibson offered up one after another of songs worked up in his idiosyncratic, high-energy, complex singing and playing styles. There were a lot of covers that he personalized so completely, you had to listen closely in the beginning to realize it was a classic he'd run through his very interesting "wash cycle".

As if that weren't enough -- and it would have been -- sitting low on the curb of the stage was Richard Hombre Price, contributing a deep and well-integrated bass line to the performance. Pardon me . . . I didn't know who he was at first, just that he looked familiar. But I found out soon enough when I chatted with him during the break, and Price filled me in on his legendary involvement with the roots and life of Southern Rock.

Lucky Buddy to have Price to play with that night. Lucky us to be there for a really special concert.

That's the Sarasota live music scene: You never know who's going to show up playing with whom, and there's so much historic talent strumming and drumming away here, proud of where they've been and yet also often eager and willing to jam with the up-and-coming future legends.