About

Cigar City Sounds is an entertainment blog based around the Tampa Bay music scene. It is a place to find occasional news, profiles, and reviews of local venues and the bands who play them. Created as an outlet for expression, the posts are irregular and unscheduled- for now.

John Charles Roddy is the founder of the website, author of the blog posts, and writer of this sentence. Born and raised in Tampa, J.C. left home to study creative writing in our Nation's epicenter of arts and culture- Pensacola, Florida. There, he discovered his love for live music after wandering into his first funk show at a grungy downtown club. Roddy later moved back to Tampa's Ybor City, where he fell face first into the local jam scene. In 2019, he left home again, this time on his bicycle. He rode from Florida to California, stopping for shows at iconic venues in New Orleans, Austin, El Paso, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Over the next few years, J.C continued to travel, working seasonal guiding and teaching jobs before settling back in the Bay Area. Now calling St. Petersburg his home, he continues to spend every weekend chasing those intensely connected- but fleeting- soulful moments that only live music can provide.