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Alex Kilroy: From Romania to Orlando’s Next Blues Rock Star
Photo courtesy of Prospect Public Relations
By the time you put “Transylvania,” “Orlando-based,” “blues guitarist,” and “crossover star” into the same sentence, you know you’ve unearthed a musical story with a difference. So, sit tight and we’ll do our best to outline a local phenom who might just be the Next Big Thing in American music.
Regular visitors to the eclectic Blue Goat in Maitland will already know we’re talking about Alex Kilroy, whose recent appearances on the low-key venue’s stage have quickly become the stuff of folklore, but his name and, especially, his guitar virtuosity are almost certainly new to most.
This is where things get interesting. While it certainly isn’t the beginning of the story, it constitutes enough of a starting point as far as Orlando is concerned. Plus, being in on the ground floor of the discovery of a guitar hero for the modern age is something to be cherished. That’s because Kilroy, 31, has all the makings of a genuine crossover star who can appeal to multiple audiences in a myriad of different ways, with a back-story that is so utterly unique the ink is still fresh and sticky.
First off, how many blues guitarists that you know of hail from Romania? That’s right, the legendary home of Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula. Not so much Cross Roads Blues as Sweet Home Transylvania. But Kilroy – born Alexandru Musat – has forged a ground-breaking trail across Europe to The City Beautiful via Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Nashville.
Along this highly unlikely path, he has absorbed musical lessons from Romanian folk traditions, classical piano, the Romanian versions of The Voice and Dancing With The Stars, ska, gospel, R&B, country, and of course the blues. Especially the blues. Ever since his dad bought a Hummer H3 – that mighty four-wheeled, off-road colossus – on eBay and had it shipped to Romania.
We know what you’re thinking. “You’re kidding, right?” Nope. It’s the essential starting point of the Alex Kilroy story, a lightbulb moment that set the kid from a musical family in the northern Transylvanian city of Bistrița on a crazy trajectory of guitar expertise. Because, in that H3 from East Lansing, Michigan, was a stray DVD of Stevie Ray Vaughan Live at Montreux, and the 12-year-old kid was instantly captivated. From the opening bars of ‘Hide Away’ to the final echoes of ‘Couldn’t Stand the Weather,’ Alex discovered a whole new musical horizon that beckoned with a siren lure.
Out went classical piano lessons and in came a guitar-based regime for a teenage prodigy who rapidly absorbed every blues-based song he could unearth in a bid to emulate his new musical hero, practicing 10 hours a day. With his father’s help, he put together his own band and, before you could say Bram Stoker the teen Alex was leading a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute act across Europe and learning the country shredding techniques of chicken pickin’ guitar ace Doug Seven – again, at dad’s urging.
Back in Romania, a spell in the house band for the country’s top late-night chat show – think Jimmy Fallon with an eastern European accent – was followed by an epiphany: Where was his rapidly evolving musicianship going to take him? At just 18, he had already exhausted most of the possibilities for a Romanian blues artist, and he still had a juvenile crush on American culture – music, the movies, TV, the works. As an A student, he had learned English from an early age, and he was fully bi-lingual. The next move was clearly ordained.
From the age of six, he had hung the Stars and Stripes over his bed and told his parents that even though he “came to earth” in Romania, he felt he “belonged” to the United States. His musical direction made it a no brainer. If he was going to discover his own identity, it had to be in the USA, but where should he aim for? His latest inspiration was Grammy Award-winning John Mayer – another Vaughan devotee – who had studied at the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a quick search online revealed they offered a summer course for $6,000.
Armed with a shiny new student’s visa, Alex quickly impressed his Berklee teachers and was offered a full college place with a $22,000 scholarship. The only problem was the year’s course cost $65,000. The difference was way beyond his ability to pay and, as an overseas student, there were no government loans available. But, back in Romania, The Voice was looking for new stars and Alex was a strong contender. He made it all the way to the final only to be edged out for top spot – and miss out on the prize money.
Ruefully, he called Jeffrey Lockhart, his Berklee teacher, with the bad news. As much as the college wanted him, there was no way he could afford the other $43,000. The response was revelatory. “It was like, ‘Man, you want to play the Blues, just go play the Blues. Go play for the people, go play with people, just go. That’s your school. You don’t need to be in a classroom to learn how to play the Blues. You got it.’”
And that was all the urging he needed. Summoning up the Romanian equivalent of chutzpah, he called Buddy Guy’s Legends club in Chicago, pretending to be his own manager. Would they be interested in booking exciting new guitarist Alex Kilroy on his first US tour? Sure. How about August 18, opening for Trombone Shorty, an hour’s set? Bingo. Only, now he had to find a band.
Fortunately, another call to Lockhart was able to hook him up with two original musicians from Buddy Guy’s stable, and the gig was on. One gig led to another, and, suddenly Alex was looking at a full-time move to Chicago. Now there would be no stopping him. Until a friend brought up the matter of his visa. “What’s your status,” he asked. “What papers do you have?” Um, his visitor’s visa. Wasn’t that good enough? Not for full-time work, he was told. That was a big no-no.
Crushingly, if Alex needed a new visa that would allow him to work, he had to go back to Romania to apply for it. Oh, and the price tag – $8,000. But, back in Bucharest, the producers of the domestic version of Dancing With The Stars came calling. Would he like to be the guitarist for the resident band? It paid $1,000 per episode and there would be 10 episodes.
With a bit of cash to spare, it all came down to a personal appearance for a visa at the US Embassy in Bucharest. And a particularly sticky interview. It went something like this: “So, you want to be an artist. What kind of music are you playing, Romanian country [music]?” “No, American country.” “Really? How about you sing something?” “What, right here? You’re kidding, right?” “No, if you don’t sing, I’m not gonna give you the visa.” “I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rollin’ round the bend ….”
That’s right, Johnny Cash provided Alex’s ticket to America.
By now, it should be clear that no Kilroy story runs in a straight line. Instead of returning to Chicago, he went to visit friends in Philadelphia and started playing with a local band who specialized in ska and reggae. Not his regular jam, but his extraordinary appetite for learning new things continued to keep him busy, and several months passed with him being a part-time band member and occasional odd job man. Until, once again, his money was running out. He needed full-time work but, with his visa, it could only be in the performing arts.
It was time to get serious about his musicianship. And one place in particular called out to him. “I was in a bus station, and I just said [to myself]: I’m gonna go. I’m in America, I got everything I need. I can jump in a car and just go. I gotta go to Nashville.” The only problem – he didn’t have a car. “But this is America, right? Everyone has a car. I just needed to think like an American.”
Sure enough, he found a second-hand junker for $1,600 that could carry his guitar and amps and he was all set for his big departure date. Until (and you just knew there was going to be another wrinkle, didn’t you?) he all but totaled the car by running into the back of another car at relatively low speed. Surveying the front of his 20-year-old Hyundai, he burst into tears. He’d spent the bulk of his money, he had no full-time job, and now his only means of transport was a smoldering ruin. The Alex Kilroy story was going nowhere fast.
Happily, through the tears and smoke from the wrecked radiator, Alex heard some comforting words. “Don’t worry kid, you got this. You can rebuild the car. You’re gonna make it to Nashville.” The assurance came from his Philly friend, and he was as good as his word, hooking Alex up with the various junkyards around the city, a garage full of tools, and an internet connection. And, in the space of two hectic weeks, he YouTubed his car back together. In February 2019, he pointed it in the direction of Tennessee and took off.
Finally, he had reached a point where he could start presenting his unique talent, albeit it required an essential name change. Out went the ancestral Musat and in came Kilroy, riffing on that memorable World War II graffiti ‘Kilroy was here,’ which US troops triumphantly scrawled on walls and buildings across Europe in 1945 as they blazed a trail to Berlin. Significantly, it was also a name from Alex’s childhood, when he would often doodle the famed moniker over his notebooks.
The name recognition was enough to quickly pick up a variety of gigs, including a regular one with his own cover band that included drummer Lauren Scheff – son of bass player Jerry Scheff who played with Elvis Presley, The Doors, and Bob Dylan – and Jason Hartless, the regular drummer for Ted Nugent. When the pandemic threatened to shut them down, they found a new outlet as a literal garage band on YouTube and kept going.
Soon, they were so popular they were in demand seven days a week, and it began to take a toll on Alex. His voice started to suffer and, after consulting well-known singer and voice coach Tabitha Fair, he was advised to take a break. Even that proved a blessing in disguise. Turned out, Fair had another student of the singer-songwriter variety by the name of Sophia Medina, and they were destined to form a group of their own. Alex and Sophia started dating, then moved in together. They started writing songs together and, yes, they had a baby together. And then, “We realized we were going to be parents, and that’s when we’re like, okay now stuff gets real very fast. So what are we gonna do in Nashville?”
But even that proved a blessing in disguise.
This is where Orlando enters the picture and things come right up to date in a hurry. Alex says, “I was getting burned out. The truth of the matter is it’s a good life. It’s nice, but you’re working so much you don’t have time to enjoy anything. So Sophia proposed to do it right. I didn’t see it at that time, I couldn’t. I didn’t really agree to moving, but then Orlando brought a lot of great things I hadn’t seen, so she had a great intuition.”
Bella was born on December 3, 2024, and, as every parent knows, it is the event that turns life upside down, in the best possible way. But the move south helped to keep things in perspective. As well as Sophia’s parents to provide baby support, The City Beautiful offered regular work at the likes of Blake Shelton’s Ole Red and Tin Roof at ICON Park. More importantly, it also provided the perfect environment for Alex’s debut album.
Yes, amid all the chaos of relocation and becoming a father, Orlando provided a precious additional commodity. “What Orlando gave me was the quietness [to write]. Because when you write, the quietness of your mind can let the music come from the ether. So it comes through you and, if you allow it to come through, you need peacefulness and you need quietness. So you don’t get influenced by the outside factors. Now I have a perspective of the world. My daughter also inspired me, so it’s a combination of letting it happen and making it happen at the same time.”
The result was the aptly titled Break My Chains, just 19 years in the making, from that Stevie Ray Vaughan DVD to family life in Central Florida. A total of 5,491 miles from Bistrița in Romania, but a mere hop, skip, and guitar solo in musical terms. A welter of genres and sounds, influences from far and wide, all served up in a unique package that represents half a lifetime’s experiences. And launched in May from the Bang & Olufsen high-fidelity store in Winter Park.
That’s right, even the starting point for this musical milestone came out of left field, eschewing the usual venues for a local audio-visual specialist able to showcase the ear-pleasing sound of Alex Kilroy at its best. Because this is a melodic debut you will want to play on the best equipment possible to gain the fullest appreciation of the aural silk it represents, a 12-song collection that is both balm for the soul and a toe-tapping delight for the feet.
With co-writing credits on three tracks with Sophia and a collaboration with Country royalty Vince Gill on the soon-to-be-hit-single ‘Let The Good Times Roll,’ Break My Chains is a songwriting tour de force delivered by a master musician. At face value it is just honest-to-goodness blues rock filtered through the musical lens of the slickest production values. But, scratch the surface of songs like ‘Visions Of The Past,’ ‘Angel,’ and ‘Answer USA’ and you immediately hear echoes of RnB legend Luther Vandross, the jazzed up soul of George Benson, the guitar gravitas of Robert Cray, and even the vocal mastery of Michael Jackson. On the haunting instrumental ‘Kilroy’s Ballad’ and the album-closing ‘Hard To Let You Go,’ he goes full tilt for the face-melting blues brilliance of Robin Trower and Alvin Lee.
It’s not just the guitar virtuosity, either. Alex’s vocals offer a tonal treat for the eardrums, running the gamut of gospel soulfulness to rock ’n roll grit, but always with a sense of purpose and a mind for melody. Nothing jars in this collection of potential classics, and the overall smoothness could put sandpaper out of business.
But, despite all these – and several other – points of comparison, it all comes across as a highly original and fresh mélange, the essence of Alex, if you like. This is a debut for the ages that deserves to be a massive success. Check it all out on AlexKilroy.com and you can help in that process. Oh, search out his version of ‘House Of The Rising Son’ on YouTube, and you’ll also thrill to a guitar solo that even Vaughan would envy.
Mike Synan
News | Sports | Politics
- After two decades in news and politics, Mike Synan is returning to his roots to write Sports as “The Sportsaholic”. Mike hosted a talk show for 6 years on WDBO after Magic home games called “Magic Til Midnight”, and spent years working as an in-game correspondent for both ESPN and Fox Sports Radio. His column “Synan Says” has appeared on both www.wdbo.com and www.floridadaily.com. He has a BS in Political Science from Clemson University. You can reach him at msynan@sportsmail.com
