Oh. My. God. Vinx. Vinx. I became a fan of Vinx back when I was in high school in the early 90's. The first time I heard him it was during Sting's MTV Unplugged gig, and I had the VHS tape and this dude playing percussion and backup vocals was so unique and amazing. I picked up his solo albums and dug his crazy re-imaginings of jazz tunes. He has a crazy voice.

In the late 90's I worked for the Newbury Comics record chain as a register jocky; talking about any and all music as much as I could and tossing in comic book talk as well (geek dream job?) , and his then-wife worked at the NC main offices down in Boston. That was how I tried to connect myself to him back in those days. Six degrees of separation kind of thing. Hey, it was cool. It was Vinx.

Cut to a few months ago: Vinx performed in Nashua as part of the NH Jazz Series which started at Studio 99 (which is now closed, sadly) and is now hosted at the Nashua Community Music School. When I reached out to Vinx and got a reply of yes for getting together for a quick portrait, I almost fainted. Some people you just get kinda fan-boy-ish over. I've got a friend that turns into a blathering fool whever she's around Liz Longley. I have a hand full of people that would do the same to me; Glen Phillips, Tori Amos, Harrison Ford, Ewan McGreggor, Vance Gilbert, etc. And Vinx.

He didn't have much time to setup and get ready, so my time was limited, and I got two images of him that I really like. I took these in the hallway outside the Music School. Make the best of whatever location you have, because you might not have the chance to do it again. I'm so happy I got a portrait of him. So awesome.

Vinx and his wife invited me up to his studio to visit. It's an invitation I'm definitely going to take advantage of.

Omg. Vinx.

When I told him how long I've been a fan and of the unplugged VHS tape I wore out he replied "Oh, yeah, the unplugged gig. I never got paid for that." Omg!