When The Carlos Rock Experience plays Winston\u2019s on Sept. 7, it will only be their third gig, but it\u2019s the culmination of a life in music for guitarist Carlos Rodriguez. Perhaps best known to date as a founding member of Southern rockers, Stone Horse, Rodriguez recently left the band. “It was time to do my own thing,” Rodriguez said. A graduate of La Jolla High School, 1974, Rodriguez has been playing guitar since he was 14. “It gave me some focus,” he said. “I was a juvenile delinquent when I was a kid, but once I got to eighth grade, I really got into music. So, it was live a life of crime or play guitar. I chose the latter.”
\nThe band\u2019s set list is split 50\/50 between originals and covers. While his previous group specialized in the Southern rock sound, The Carlos Rock Experience is influenced by the British blues rock of the 1970s, including The Faces, The Rolling Stones and pre Buckingham \/ Nicks Fleetwood Mac. “That music still feels vital,” Rodriguez said. “Audiences really respond. Some of these songs are decades old, but really, they\u2019re timeless.”
\nIn addition to Rodriguez, the band includes band co-leader Mindy Torgl (vocals), Kevin Ring (guitar), Al Venditti (bass), Jeffrey Bloom (drums), Sandra Herrera (vocals) with special guests Zachary Cole (harmonica) and Greg Wadsworth (guitar). “I\u2019ve known most of these people for decades,” he said. “Except for Al, who is originally from Bensonhurst New York, everyone went to La Jolla High and everyone\u2019s part of the scene that built up in Bird Rock, so it\u2019s all old friends and I love it,” Rodriguez continued. “Gigs and rehearsals never feel like work. They remind me more of those great house parties with bands that we used to have back in the day, only on a larger scale.” Rodriguez\u2019s work with Stone Horse helped earn the band nominations in 2014 and 2018 at the San Diego Music Awards in the category of “Best Rock Album,” and he has high hopes for this project as well. “I\u2019m hoping to have an album ready to go early next year,” he said. “Mindy and I are working on new songs as we speak, but I also have a lot of songs that I\u2019ve written over the years that I\u2019m taking another look at, coming up with new arrangements and so on. There\u2019s no shortage of material.”
\nThe band is happy to be back at Winston\u2019s for this show. “It\u2019s kind of a home away from home,” Rodriguez said. “They\u2019ve been booking my bands for 30 years and a whole lot of good things have happened there.” Beyond gigs and socializing, notably, Stone Horse taped their first video at Winston\u2019s, for the song “Look What I\u2019ve Done.” “(Booker) Ted Wigler is one of the biggest local music supporters I know. I\u2019m always happy to be back in OB,” Rodriguez said.
\nDoes Rodriguez still get the same joy from playing music that he felt as a teenager? “I love playing guitar and being on stage, emulating my heroes. It doesn\u2019t matter the place or crowd size. When I play, it feels to me like I\u2019m at Madison Square Garden.” Though he has now been performing at local clubs and parties for almost 50 years, Rodriguez considers age to be no barrier to rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. “I remember seeing the Beatles and the Stones on Ed Sullivan,” he recalled. “That had such a huge effect on me. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those days, but when I get to make music, whether it\u2019s onstage, in the studio, or just hanging with friends, at heart I\u2019m still that little kid,” Rodriguez said.
\nThe Carlos Rock Experience: Saturday, Sept. 7 at Winston\u2019s, 1921 Bacon St. 2 to 5 p.m. $5. 21 and up. winstonsob.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When The Carlos Rock Experience plays Winston\u2019s on Sept. 7, it will only be their third gig, but it\u2019s the culmination of a life in music for guitarist Carlos Rodriguez. Perhaps best known to date as a founding member of Southern rockers, Stone Horse, Rodriguez recently left the band. “It was time to do my […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":275207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"The new Carlos Rock Experience to play Winston\u2019s","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}