I really need to tell the marvelous two-level “world-is-getting-smaller” story of how I brought my Navatone guitar home. I bought one of Bruce Zinky’s Smokey Amps to go along with it and had it in the case. So I bring it into my favorite luthier’s shop, Frets in Westerly, owned by Zachary Dustin and when we opened the case, Zach’s wife at the time looks in and goes, “Isn’t that that little amp that Tony Palazzolo helped invent?”
Why yes it is, and I go, “any relation to Mike Palazzolo?” and they say yes, his brother. Small world. I know Mike pretty well from different bands the past 4 or 5 years around New London County and Rhode Island and stuff, right?
So that’s that, the world is getting smaller, eh?
But wait, there’s more.
So the following January I’m at Namm in Anaheim and I actually get a couple opportunities to meet Bruce Zinky the guy who invented the Smokey amp. I’m telling him the whole story about bringing the guitar to Westerly and seeing the amp in my case, etc., and at some point a guy walks up and says, “Excuse me, could you tell that part about Stonington and Westerly again?” So I backtrack and when I get to the part about “Tony Palazzolo,” he reaches his hand out and says, “Tony Palazzolo, nice to meet you.”
What a trip!!!
Every time I tell this story I can feel the planet shrinking a little more…
That is all I can say for now.