Heavy metal from Liverpool band in a black-and-white wrapper.

Some teens still love hard rock music.

Cool.

In January, I sat on the judging panel for the Jewish Community Center of Syracuse’s annual battle of the bands.

One of the outfits that filled the SPOT Teen Center in Shoppingtown with hopes and dreams that night was Blind Jaguar.

The heavy metal band from Liverpool featured Alex Deal on vocals, Moe Michnick on lead guitar, Kyler Holt on rhythm guitar, Jordan Morison on bass and Tom Shubsda on drums. They finished second in the battle.

Fast forward to Sunday. My dear wife, Karen, and I are watching the NASCAR race, cheering our favorite racers on as they bang fenders on the short track in Martinsville. Suddenly Dogamous Pyle, aka Ellie B, goes on one of her stay-away-from-our-house tears.

Two people stand on the side porch of our Eastwood home. Sheepishly they hand me a CD. They tracked me down on purpose, you see, to personally deliver the Blind Jaguar CD “From Dawn to Dusk.”

Drummer Shubsda explains more fully in an email later that day:

“Sorry to surprise you at your house today. I really liked your comments from the battle of the bands, so I figured you should get a copy of our CD. We recorded it in a 10-hour studio session at Rosewood Studios, and it’s on sale at The Sound Garden downtown now. … I’d love to hear your opinion of the album. I would appreciate that very much. Thanks for accepting the CD. I hope you enjoy it.”

I do indeed enjoy it, Tom.

Nice melody on the opening cut, “Night’s Sun.” Memorable drum run on the third cut, “The Emotions.” Flaming passion on song four, “Midnight Sunrise.” Sizzling guitar work on cut five, “To the Gallows.”

Hard work fulfilled, obviously, on the half-dozen pieces. More to be accomplished, certainly, greater confidence and better performances to come still if further hours are spent writing, singing, playing apart and together.

Time well spent, putting that hard rock dream square in your headlights and driving full speed ahead.