All great and wonderful things in life have their bit of magic. It's the elements working in harmony to synergistically create something more powerful than the individual ingredients. You can feel it, and then when you look back you can see it. We felt it for sure. Looking back you can see it. Here's the first bit of our origin story.
We met by chance, divine intervention, or serendipity. Jared and Nicohl were supposed to see a performance of Blues Traveler in May of 2023, but at the last minute the show was canceled. If it had been canceled earlier we never would have met. It happened that Brian and I were performing with our blues band that night, and the Asher's came since they still had dinner plans with all their friends stuck in town. But even then we may still not have met if not for another push. My biggest fan attends all our shows and loves to talk incessantly about us, since she is my mother. Not realizing what they were getting themselves into, the Asher’s ended up sharing a table with her. Jared was seated right next to her, and being the gracious and polite person he is, entertained her rhapsody all evening.
So the show ends and I'm at the stage talking to a few people, rolling cables, and here comes Jared. I'm sure by that point he felt he knew me pretty well, given that he'd just received my entire personal history. But I had no idea any of it was going on, my mother was nowhere to be seen, and he was a total stranger. He says, “Hi, I'm Jared.” Then without any other preamble, opens his arms wide for a hug, looking like Jesus with his long hair. In that split second I thought, he might be crazy, but he looks pretty harmless. I hugged him laughing. We talked for a bit after that and agreed to connect later. So glad we did.