I waited nearly a year after talking to Rock Killough on the telephone to meet him in person, and hear him sing his music when he came to Greenville and performed at the Front Street Pub in March.

Although one of the first things Rock told me when we talked on the telephone last summer was that he was really a songwriter, and was a singer on the side, I was enamored by his easy-going country style the first time I heard him perform. His work is soothing, yet it moves you.

I got my second chance to hear Rock Thursday night when he returned to the Front Street Pub, and at this point I confess to being hooked. A Willie Nelson fan since my childhood, I've always has a thing for Willie's kind of country music, although Country has not been my most desired genre.

I called Rock last June before I had any idea who he was, what he did, or how he was connected to Greenville. Actually I called his wife Kandys, but she wasn't home so I visited some with Rock. The reason I called was her was that she lives in Bangs, Texas, and virtually every childhood memory I have stems from Bangs. I know Texas is a big place, but people move to Bangs to get lost. Bangs has 1,700 residents and is a good ways from anywhere. It's where both my parents grew up and live. It's the only town I've ever gone to visit my grandparents, since all four of them lived there, and it's where I lived until I left Texas in 1994.

I had to know what the heck a woman from Bangs, Texas was going to do with a "Pictorial History of Butler County" book. So I called. Kandys wasn't home, so Rock and I got to talking. He told me a little about himself and why he'd moved to Bangs after years living in Greenville. He told me about working with Willie Nelson so I immediately knew he had to be "cool." I was stunned that a guy who has written songs on several platinum and gold albums lived in Bangs. Turned out, Rock lives on a ranch about a mile from my father's ranch. I told him we'd have to get together when I came to Texas to visit.

We've not done that yet, but we finally got a chance to meet when he came to Greenville in March and now I'll always try to have Rock on my calendar when he comes to my area, or I go to his.

Rock and the Dixie Flyers are performing at the Flora-Bama Lounge in Perdido Key this weekend.

I was recently telling a cousin in Texas that I lived in Greenville,

and immediately went into the physical description of being located just south of Montgomery. She interrupted me.

"Oh, I know where Greenville is, I have a songwriter buddy that used to live there named Rock Killough," she said. Notice she said songwriter, but let me tell you Rock puts on a show.

It really is a small world.

Eric Bishop is publisher of the Greenville Advocate. His column appears on Saturday.