That summer though, I got an offer from a pro pop rock band to work pretty steady, travel across the US, write and perform original material and give fame and fortune a go at it. So I decline with Berklee and joined the group and hit the road. The group had a few different names at the beginning but we landed on the name "Block Yard". It was Amy Rome on lead vocals, Frank Cyr on bass, Bob Miranda on drums, Tom West on keys, and myself on guitar. We began playing 5-6 nights every week and I would say we played close to 150-200 gigs a year for 9 years! When we weren't gigging we were writing, rehearsing, recording or partying. On the road we lived and spent a lot of time together. We played all over New England, the South and the Midwest in a total of 26 states in the US. We camped out in Florida for several months and shacked up in a production house that believed in us and we played tons of shows down there. It was the Beach all day then gigging and partying all night!! What a life, especially at age 18!

  Then we came back to Boston and played around New England and also most of the big clubs in Boston that promoted Original Pop Rock material including the Paradise, the Channel, the Rat, Jacks, Bunratty's, Jonathan Swift's and many others. That band went on to gain many cool accolades including: Several cover stories in The Beat Magazine, performer, and other publications. We got the "Future Jackpot" in the College Music Journal, the singer in our group was nominated for 2 Boston Music Awards. We also got on the "bubbling under" chart in Billboard Magazine and a great review in Variety Magazine. We performed a showcase at the Cat Club in New York and a College Music Journal showcase at Studio 54. We were elected twice to participate in the WBCN Rock and Roll Rumble and were also invited to participate in the Boston Rock and Roll Anthology III Compilation Record. We also got signed to a great management company in LA called the Morres and Nanas Agency who was representing Ray Sharkey, Gary Busey and Miami Sound Machine at the time. I worked in that group for 9 years and boy was it an emotional thing to leave. I just felt it was the right time. I had met my new girlfriend Jennifer, who later became my wife. We have now been together for over 20 years and married for over 15 of those years and we have 2 children named Gianni and Marco. But bottom line it was time for me to make a change musically. I felt like that band had run its course and it was time for me to go a different direction.