{"id":17734,"date":"2023-07-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=17734"},"modified":"2023-07-06T06:41:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T06:41:44","slug":"from-music-cafe-to-the-main-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=17734","title":{"rendered":"From Music Caf\u00e9 to the Main Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Staff Sgt. Dylan Francis (left) and Rick Scavetta perform \u201cCan\u2019t You See\u201d by The Marshall Tucker Band at the Independence Day celebration, June 30 on Caserma Ederle.
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With musical influences like Johnny Cash, Guns N\u2019 Roses, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, Staff Sgt. Dylan Francis, a Southern European Task Force-Africa Soldier, a guitar strumming, country rock-n-roller who once performed at Carnegie Hall, prepared for his first performance in over 10 years on the main stage at the Vicenza Military Community Independence Day celebration.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Francis sang in the Crowley, Texas school choir, learned the trumpet and tuba in his school band, and had dreams of being a professional bass player and graduate from the University of North Texas, but life didn\u2019t go as he expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurns out you got to have good grades in high school to get into college,\u201d said Francis. \u201cThen I found my way to the Army. On top of having a musically inclined family, both of my parents served in the Marines and my two grandfathers and a step-grandfather also served in the Army, Airforce, and Navy. It\u2019s what I gravitated toward.\u201d<\/p>\n

After life threw a couple obstacles at him, Francis lost the motivation to pick up his guitar. The life lessons brought things full circle and he found himself picking that Martin acoustic guitar back up and performing at the Music Caf\u00e9, a regular open mic jam session on Caserma Ederle. When the opportunity to open for the Armed Forces Entertainment musical guest, triple-platinum selling, Andy Grammer, at the Independence Day celebration, he didn\u2019t hesitate to say yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of that comes from doing the things you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re great at, and I\u2019ll be honest with you, I didn\u2019t know if I was good anymore,\u201d said Francis. \u201cBut as nervous as I am, I\u2019m just as excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another talented community member, Zechara Brown, a military spouse and mother of two young daughters, discovered the Soldier\u2019s theatre and their Music Caf\u00e9, which gave her the outlet she was searching for.<\/p>\n

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\n Zechara Brown performs \u201cSomeone Like You\u201d by Adele at the Caserma Ederle Independence Day celebration, June 30.
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Although she used to get in trouble for singing in her 1st grade class, Brown\u2019s passion for music started at church with her grandmother, who still plays the piano at the church Brown grew up in. She not only sang in the choir, she became the director, and eventually church choir turned into concert choirs.<\/p>\n

Despite having a background in gospel music, Brown\u2019s style is soul with a voice to match. Two of her major influences are Etta James and Adele, however she loves a wide range of music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love old music,\u201d said Brown. \u201cI\u2019m an oldie at heart, but I just love music in general. Country, opera, soul, all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without realizing how big of an opportunity this was, or how big of a crowd would be there, Brown jumped at the chance to perform for the community as an opening act for Andy Grammer at the Independence Day celebration. In spite of feeling nervous, she was more excited for her daughters to see her on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell them about the event, so I know they\u2019re going to be surprised,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

Also, hitting the stage was the local band, Real Illusion. Real Illusion is an emerging rock band from here in Vicenza. The band also plays at the Music Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

The two local talents would not have had this opportunity without Barry \u201cThe Bassman\u201d Robinson, a retired Vietnam veteran. He had a vision 13 years ago of creating a sanctuary, \u2018The Music Caf\u00e9\u2019 at the Soldier\u2019s Theatre on Caserma Ederle, for all musicians from both the military and the Italian communities to come together for the love of music. What Barry didn\u2019t know was that his vision would boast opportunities for a couple of like-minded community members to perform at the Independence Day celebration on June 30 at Caserma Ederle.<\/p>\n

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\n Zechara Brown (left), and Staff Sgt. Dylan Francis after a rehearsal at the Music Caf\u00e9 at the Soldier\u2019s Theatre before their Independence Day performance.
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At the last minute Grammer\u2019s flight was canceled and Francis and Brown were elevated in the entertainment lineup, taking them from opening acts, to a main attraction, something neither of them will soon forget.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/italy.armymwr.com\/calendar\/event\/music-cafe-20\/6034844\/79881<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staff Sgt. Dylan Francis (left) and Rick Scavetta perform \u201cCan\u2019t You See\u201d by The Marshall Tucker Band at the Independence Day celebration, June 30 on Caserma Ederle. (Photo Credit: Stefanie Mosley) VIEW ORIGINAL With musical influences like Johnny Cash, Guns N\u2019 Roses, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, Staff Sgt. Dylan Francis, a Southern European Task Force-Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17736,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17734"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17740,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17734\/revisions\/17740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}