Guitar wiz: 14-year-old rocks out at Finns Beachside Pub with professional band

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

As Logan Fingerhut showed off his fast finger work on his Paul Reed Smith guitar alongside a track of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” it would be easy to forget that he’s only 14 years old.

Logan Fingerhut plays his PRS guitar. Photo by Paige Wilson

“Those are the Ferraris of guitars,” said Mike Fingerhut, Logan’s father, about PRSs. “Those are the guitars you get when you’ve mastered guitar playing. They’re like having a car; they have to be pampered and taken care of.”

For his first big gig, Logan performed with band Psycho Magnets on Feb. 17 at Finn’s Beachside Pub in Flagler Beach.

“It’s a little crazy to think of what’s happening,” Logan said.

The lead singer of Psycho Magnets, Bill Hamilton, visited Logan a few weeks before the show to see his talents in person.

“There was some hesitation because you never know when someone’s going to be who they say they are,” Hamilton said.

But Logan was good to his word.

“For someone his age to be able to be that good, it’s very rare that you see that,” Hamilton said.

After getting special permission from Finn’s’ staff to be in the pub after 9 p.m. since he’s not 21, Logan rocked on the guitar for five songs on stage with the Psycho Magnets.

Mike said Finns was packed wall to wall for the performance.

“The adults that were there could care less about his age,” Mike said. “All they cared about was how incredible the playing was.”

Hamilton said he’s mentoring Logan about the music business, teaching him what goes into performing and behind-the-scenes work.

“I’m looking forward to playing with him again,” Hamilton said. “I’m hoping by him kind of coming in with Psycho Magnets that he’ll be able to learn some more to try to seek out people closer to his age to put something together.”

Logan will perform a 45-minute set of his choosing, with Bill Hamilton on bass and vocals, and Psycho Magnets’ Barry Welch on drums as an opening act for Psycho Magnets at Finn’s at 9 p.m. on April 28.

“For performing, I don’t worry about messing up because if I do, people aren’t going to really notice it, and if they do notice it, I’ll fix it or it’s not going to affect anything else,” Logan said.

Practice makes perfect

Since age 5, Logan has been working to master guitar beyond just learning chords. He’s advanced past the level of several Palm Coast instructors and has been taking lessons with well-known guitar coach Tony Smotherman in Jacksonville for about a year now.

“Tony specializes in more intricate guitar playing, like getting deeper and deeper into the chords and things like that,” Mike said. “Since he’s been up with Tony, his guitar levels have skyrocketed.”

Logan outgrew his first two guitars, but gained another in 2015 to award his hard work: Anthony Wild, founder of Kids Rock the Nation, presented him with a guitar during a First Friday event in Flagler Beach.

“It influenced me to start playing with people because (Wild) does open-mics at multiple bars and stuff, and it got me to start playing in front of people,” Logan said.

The Fingerhuts have known Wild for years, personally and professionally.

“One of the things Anthony tells Logan all the time is that the people out here are your friends, not to get nervous because they’re here to see you and to just think of them as friends, not as strangers on the street,” Mike said. “I think that eases his nerves.”

Logan said he doesn’t get nervous before performing.

“Playing with a recording or playing by myself, you don’t really get the feel of music,” he said. “But playing with people, you’re not really worried about playing it perfectly. You’re worried about having fun.”

As an eighth-grader at Indian Trails Middle School who takes dual-enrollment high school classes, Logan manages his time well, practicing guitar one to two hours after school every day and three-hour lessons with Smotherman over the weekend.

“It’s really not that bad between evening out guitar time, social time, homework time,” he said. “It all fits in. At parts, it may become a little stressful learning new things in all areas.”

Logan plans to start taking college classes throughout high school to get a head start before pursuing a career in the medical field, and, of course, finding time to rock.