New neighborhood beat in Lakewood Ranch's Indigo

Among her duties as director of Club Indigo, Tami Prince is a lifestyle director, figuring out ways to help people in the Indigo community of Lakewood Ranch connect.

Now if she only could play the drums.

While she has put together everything from Euchre to pickleball events, Prince has especially enjoyed watching three neighbors connect all on their own ... through music.

Indigo residents Tom Perillo, Bill Irvan and Ken Combs, all guitarists, started getting together to do a little jamming at their homes, but now have formed a band called "The Blue Pelicans."

Besides weekly jam sessions at Indigo's clubhouse, they are starting to play at community events and fundraisers. They might even take their act to outside interests if someone is interested in hiring them.

"It makes us cool," Prince said of having a community band at Indigo. "When people see that we have a band, they think, 'That's got to be a fun place.'"

The fun place seems to be anywhere Perillo, Irvan and Combs gather. On a Thursday afternoon at the clubhouse, they cruised through a variety of soft rock hits as if they have been together when those hits were popular, most more than four decades ago. The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and the Eagles are among their favorite artists with a little Neil Young, John Fogerty and Van Morrison sprinkled in.

Perillo, the youngest of the trio at 57, got things started. In December, he posted an announcement seeking fellow musicians in the community who might want to get together and jam. That attracted Combs, who is 63. They would meet and run through about six songs that they felt comfortable playing.

Irvan, 64, moved to the community in February and saw the poster.

"To be honest, when Bill joined the group, everything came together," Perillo said. "Ken and I would only run through a half dozen songs. When Bill joined, it went to like 30."

Perillo and Irvan both play the acoustic guitar while Combs' speciality is the electric guitar. After Irvan joined the trio, they started to play at the clubhouse in front of neighbors and friends. Perillo said they would be well received at professional gigs if they choose that route.

"We wouldn't embarrass ourselves," he said.

Irvan said it has been a blast getting together with his two new friends.

"We found we all liked the same kind of music, and that can be the hardest thing" Irvan said. "The last community where I lived we didn't have this to create a set of friends. We enjoy stuff from the 1960s and '70s. We're all retired and this gives us something to do. I used to use music as a stress reliever. Now it's just fun to hear (the songs) and to play them again."

Irvan called Perillo a very good lead guitarist who has a "sense of what fits." "I've always like vocals more," Irvan said, "Like James Taylor, or songs with a lot of finger picking, like 'Dust in the Wind.'" 

Combs calls himself a "strummer."

"We do need Tom to make this organized," he said. "We have three (guitars) doing exactly the same thing. But we haven't had a cross word ever."

Prince is hoping the threesome becomes a moresome as the community expands. While Indigo has sold 140 homes to date, it eventually will hold 577.

Combs said it won't be enough to find musicians for a full-blown orchestra, but the Blue Pelicans would be more than happy to add members to the band if other residents are interested. They all said a keyboard player, a drummer or a bass all would be a great addition.

Of course, Combs said it is about more than music.

"It's just nice to create new friends, to meet other people," he said.