Last Saturday night, Dew (my gent) and I had the pleasure of seeing Hot Sauce Sandwich perform at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club.  What a fun time we had listening and dancing to the music of these young musicians. The band members are Zach Engh (rhythm guitar, lead and backup vocals), A J Fox (lead guitar, lead and backup vocals), Cory Chavis (djembe and drums), and Jesse Harman (bass). Cory’s Dad was the drummer for Spontaneous Combustion and Zach’s Dad is Darin Engh - a solo performer, half of Opposite Directions and owner of Beach Music on Route 611.  =I suspect all four members of Hot Sauce Sandwich have had lessons at Beach Music at one time or another.  I can sure see a lot of Darin’s influence on his son’s music.
    These talented musicians have known one another since kindergarten and just graduated from Stephen Decatur High last week.  As a matter of fact, Dew and I went to see Darin play at Micky Fin’s last Wednesday and got there in time for his last song. Darin came up to our table to say he was turning over the last set to Nate Clendenen so he could make it to the graduation.  Wow – I remember when Darin and Bobby Wilkinson were the new kids on the block and now both of Darin’s children have finished high school. Time flies and we welcome the next generation to the great music community in Ocean City.
    Hot Sauce Sandwich formed about eighteen months ago and won the Battle of the Bands last April at Stephen Decatur. Their music is simply stated as fun beach music. It’s a mix of mostly reggae with lots of rock and jam as well. If you like Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Cash, Zeplin and Marley - you’ll love Hot Sauce Sandwich. They also have several very cool originals.
    I was chatting with Joe Smooth and he said “Yeah, those kids are hot! Their music is right on and they are all nice kids. Zach has a really good voice.” High praise from one of our hottest seasoned musicians! Would you believe that both Zach and A J broke their G string during the last song? What are the odds of that ever happening again? Despite the missing G strings, I liked the lyrics in their last song that evening, “life without music can’t go”.  So if you like music as much as I do, you will most definitely want to go hear Hot Sauce Sandwich. They will be at Sunset Grille July 1st and Java Bay Café (O P Yacht Club) July 2nd. Yes, my friends, catch them this summer as they are off to college come fall. Cory will most likely attend community college here, Zack and A J are off to Towson University (let me know if you want a home cooked meal guys - that’s my neck of the woods when I’m not in O C), and Jesse is heading to Florida.