Hey Everyone,

On Friday evening I attended a really cool party in the Historic Kenwood district of Saint Petersburg. The area is is well known for its craftsman style homes from the 1920’s with large front porches. The area is very artsy and has a really neat vibe.

My Italian friend Emilia from Naples has a beautiful historic home there.

Every month a “porch party” is held at one of the homes of a resident in this area. Each month a different resident hosts the monthly event and the attendance is usually over 150 people!

Emilia invited Rosaria, Marco and myself to the party last night and now I have an open invitation to attend these social events monthly from this point foreward!

Last night’s party was awesome. It was hosted by 4 professinal guys who share a house together. They completely gutted the interior of the home and turned it into a showpiece! They even have a recording studio in the home and their front and backyard has astro turf instead of grass (so no more mowing required). The food was out of this world and plentiful and there was a open bar and live entertainment! These guys went all out!

Cool recording studio in the house!

Love this hand-painted artistic cooler! One of a kind! Still kept the beer cold!

Marco…inspecting the quality of the wine. He approved!

Open Bar…Something for everyone! I as well as others brought bottles of wine to add to the stash! I brought a bottle of French and Italian wine, especially for my International friends!

Great food!

My contribution…I brought a dozen Canolli’s (wanted to impress my Italian women friends!)

DJ’s set up. He is one of the residents with the recording studio in the home.

Rosaria testing some of the food. Only she would know the quality, given her expertise!

EXTRA..EXTRA!

I met a woman there at the party in her mid 70’s named “Sally”, who was the actual woman that the classic R&B song “Mustang Sally” was originally written for and YES… Sally still drives a Mustang even at her age! Way too cool!

• This song is about a girl who lives a wild life in her brand new Mustang car. The singer bought her the car, which transformed her into “Mustang Sally,” and now she’s running around town, paying little attention to her sugar daddy. Pickett warns her that she needs to slow it down with one of the great threats in Soul music history: “Guess I have to put your flat feet on the ground!”

• This song was written by Bonny Rice, also known as Sir Mack Rice. Bonny started singing with a vocal group called the Five Scalders in 1955 and joined The Falcons in 1957. Eddie Floyd was also in The Falcons, and Mack later wrote songs for him when he went solo. In 1960, Wilson Pickett joined The Falcons and sang lead on their 1962 hit “I Found A Love,” and left the group for a solo career later that year.

  In 1963, The Falcons broke up, and in 1965, Rice wrote a song called “Mustang Mama” after visiting his friend, the actress/singer Della Reese, in New York City. Reese told him that she was thinking about buying her drummer Calvin Shields a new Lincoln for his birthday, which Rice, being from Detroit, thought was a great idea. When he mentioned this to Shields, the drummer replied, “I don’t want a Lincoln, I want a Mustang.”

  As Rice explained on the 2007 Rhythm & Blues Cruise, he had never heard of a Mustang before, but Shields filled him in. They went for a drive and saw a billboard for a Mustang – Rice couldn’t believe Shields wanted such a small car instead of a big ol’ Lincoln. When he returned to Detroit, Rice started writing the song as “Mustang Mama,” with the chorus “ride, Sally, ride.” His publisher knew Aretha Franklin well, and brought Rice by her house, and he sang some of the song for her. Aretha suggested he change the title to “Mustang Sally” to better suit the chorus.

  Have a great rest of your weekend!