Singer/Song writer Bill Cockrell has been performing in bands since high school, even playing drums for his own high school dances. Bill went to college studying voice, music and learning to play many different instruments. It was during this drummers college life when he picked up and learned the guitar. Bill’s day job for the past thirty-five years has been performing for one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. Just over seventeen years with the band High Tide and still filling in with many of our favorite Trop Rock Artists and bands you can safely say music is this Floridian’s life. Here is the story behind Bill Cockrell’s song “Nova Road” which is on the album Dog’s Life:
I grew up as a Florida native and have spent most of my years in the central part of the state. Living in Florida, we make frequent trips to the beaches which are located an hour to the east or an hour to the west from most parts of the central parts of the state. We always chose the east coast since Cocoa Beach is a surfing hot spot and we spent a lot of time doing that growing up in these early years.
Traveling from Kissimmee to the beach was easy via Nova Road. There was no traffic on this road and the speed limit was more of a guideline than a rule and really no one along the way to enforce it. This allowed us to get there as fast as possible and try to set the fastest trip time each time we drove. There is not much to see along the way other than cow pastures, radio towers, and an occasional passing car.
During certain times of the year we encounter love bug season in Florida. They usually appear in the mid morning as the day starts to warm up. During heavy parts of the season the bugs along the road could be quite thick. During these times we would try to leave early enough to beat them so you wouldn’t wind up with a layer of them on the front of your car. There were some times that we left only to find them too thick to endure an hour of them hitting the windshield.
A friend of ours had just purchased one of those conversion vans. It was a great travel ride to the beach with a fridge for the beer, a couch in the back and a rocking stereo playing all of our favorite tunes. This song is a reminder of those carefree road trips and days on the beach. Those were the days of Nova Road.
Listen to a quick snippet of Bill Cockrell’s summer beach tune “Nova Road”:
Download you’re copy here!
iTunes: “Nova Road”
Amazon: “Nova Road”
I live close to A1A and love this stretch of road that leads me to so many adventures! I'm perfectly situated between my two wonderful children. I love to visit my daughter in the FL panhandle and my son in Key West. I'm a Parrot Head and I love Trop Rock music!