In 2001, a boy from central London and a girl from Tuscaloosa met.

The boy, Rick Asherson, was a young keyboardist who only played in his garage for personal entertainment. The girl, Debbie Bond, was a long time band veteran and vocalist. Both were mentees under the late Willie King, an American Jazz musician.

“Willie called me up and said, ‘Debbie I’ve got this Brit guy here and you need to meet him,’ and we met and were married a year later,” Bond said.

King introduced, taught and mentored the two, inspiring them musically and 
stylistically in areas from improvisation to audience-performer relationships.

“Willie taught me that the purpose of the music was to engage the audience – to help them forget their troubles and lift their spirits,” Asherson said.

The duo will bring their modern fusion of Americana style music to the Druid City Brewing Company on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“Our music is very heavily influenced by the blues, it has a lot of soul in it,” Bond said. “We could be Americana artists, we could be Blues artists, we don’t really know what we are.”

Since their introduction, Bond and Asherson have recorded two albums and toured the United States, United Kingdom and France, playing music festivals such as the Maverick in San Antonio.

“We do a wide range of shows, we play in a lot of listening rooms, juke joints, and breweries,” Asherson said. “We are very excited about the craft beer movement because a lot of brew pubs like Druid City are opening up and booking more 
diverse bands.”