Hopper is newest gem at The Cultured Pearl

REHOBOTH BEACH -- A young and upcoming finger-style guitarist from a small town in Georgia is the newest gem at The Cultured Pearl this summer.

Shaun Hopper, nicknamed "The Wizard," has been taking Rehoboth Beach by surprise, captivating audiences with his music, style and sultry stage presence five nights a week.

"It's amazing what he does using no electronic equipment to make the sounds of guitar, drums, horns, melody and vocals," said Susan Wood, who owns the restaurant. "Shaun puts on a mesmerizing, classy performance that sounds like a five-piece band."

Hopper has been featured on local radio station Ocean 98.1. In the past, he has toured with Tim Reynolds of the Dave Matthews Band and shared the stage with the likes of The California Guitar Trio, The John Jorgenson Quintet and many others.

When asked if he ever gets starstruck, Hopper said, "I do so more by talent than popularity. When you see the hard work and passion someone puts into their music, that is so much more admirable to me."

Taken aback by his own success, he said with excitement, "I ask myself sometimes when I'm on stage, 'How did I get here?' "

After playing guitar for the last 13 years, Hopper makes everything he does look effortless.

"I practice so much that my hands just kind of take over," he said. "I tell aspiring musicians it's all about the time you put into it away from everyday distractions."

Hopper has received extensive training from multiple players throughout the years. Finger-style guitarist Sam Pacetti taught him jazz and he learned techniques on classical guitar from a college professor. He dedicated his debut album, "Lower Case Letters," to his first guitar teacher, Bill Brown.

Released in November by Digital Nations and available on iTunes and Amazon, Hopper said Steve Vai -- a notable guitar player from Long Island, N.Y. -- discovered his style and helped put the album together.

All of the songs are originals composed by Hopper and co-written by a talented pool of friends. Once Hopper comes up with an idea for a song, such as a theme or melody, the rest of his friends help navigate the process.

The most important thing Hopper noted is that regardless of how fancy a song may sound to a musician, it needs to tell a story to have a general purpose. With each of his songs, he takes his audience on a remarkable journey from the start of the first note to the last.

"People seem to listen more intently when I let them know what the song is about," he said.

Gay man running for mayor in Rehoboth | Washington Blade ...

A 48-year-old gay man who owns a financial services company is running for mayor in the popular Delaware resort town of Rehoboth Beach on a platform of government reform and improved relations with community-based businesses.

Tom McGlone, who has lived in Rehoboth with his domestic partner for the past five years, is challenging seven-term incumbent Samuel Cooper, who has been mayor since 1990.

Rehoboth has long been a favorite beach destination for gays and lesbians in the mid-Atlantic region, including D.C. and Baltimore. The town has a large number of LGBT residents as well as tourists and owners of vacation homes.

With the election set to take place Aug. 13, some of the town’s gay residents and gay business owners have complained that Cooper and his allies on the seven-member Rehoboth Board of Commissioners, which serves as the town’s legislative body, have unfairly targeted gay-owned businesses for regulatory enforcement action.

Tension over the enforcement action came to a head last September when police arrested the co-owner of the gay restaurant and bar Aqua Grill on a charge that the establishment was operating an outdoor patio later than a mandatory closing time of 11 p.m.

Police later acknowledged that the arrest was a mistake and dropped the charge. At the time of the arrest, the officers didn’t know that Aqua was among several businesses exempt from the patio restriction under rules that allow establishments to keep patios open if they had them before the 11 p.m. closing time was enacted into law.

Other small businesses, including non-gay bars and restaurants, cited the action against Aqua as one example of an out-of-control regulatory crackdown against businesses popular with visitors and residents, both gay and straight.

Cooper disputes those allegations, saying the city has enforced codes equally among all types of businesses. He said the codes are aimed at restricting excessive noise and use of outdoor spaces by bars and restaurants that can disturb nearby residents.

He acknowledged that police and city regulatory officials made a mistake in arresting Aqua co-owner Bill Shields, who was booked and finger printed before being released.

“What I’ve told everybody else is that the way that was handled was not the best – it was wrong, in fact,” Cooper told the Blade. “But the desire to keep Rehoboth from becoming a party town, a bar town is I think valid and is very much on my mind.

Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester Society of Antiquity

A history of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, its history for 275 years, 1643-1918, in which is incorporated the vital parts of the original history of the town

Vital record of Rehoboth, 1642-1896, Marriages, intentions, births, deaths

The Chaffee genealogy, embracing the Chafe, Chafy, Chafie, Chafey, Chafee, Chaphe, Chaffie, Chaffey, Chaffe, Chaffee descendants of Thomas Chaffe, of Hingham, Hull, Rehoboth and Swansea, Massachusetts, also certain lineages from families in the United States, Canada and England, not descended from Thomas Chaffe. 1635-1909

Vital record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850 : first series : births, marriages and deaths : a family register for the people