Years ago, Aaron Avila gambled his job at the Los Banos Police
Department for a shot at stardom
– and lost. Avila spent a hectic year touring Nashville clubs,
hoping his country-Western band would get noticed, before his funds
ran short.
Gilroy – Years ago, Aaron Avila gambled his job at the Los Banos Police Department for a shot at stardom – and lost. Avila spent a hectic year touring Nashville clubs, hoping his country-Western band would get noticed, before his funds ran short. With a baby daughter in tow, the Gilroy man couldn’t afford to follow his dream.
But Nashville’s loss was Gilroy’s gain. When Avila returned to California, a bit deflated, he rejoined his other passion: Police work. By day, he corrals lost dogs and lists stolen goods as a Community Service Officer with the Gilroy police; by night, he takes the stage, strutting and bopping his head to his upbeat brand of Western rock.
“They’re definitely two different worlds,” Avila said, “but I love them both.”
On a breezy Friday night, Avila headlines the band Silver Creek, belting country-Western covers to the crowds arrayed in folding chairs on Monterey and Fifth streets. His is a voice made for singing the national anthem.
Radio-ready and bell-clear, he barely needs a microphone. He shuts his eyes, lost in a ballad as he strums his guitar; moments later, he poises two fingers in bunny-ears over his unsuspecting guitarist’s head, a grin stretching ear to ear. Kids in T-shirts and shorts hop in time, infected with Avila’s ecstatic tunes. His may be the sunniest cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” ever sung.
“My first impression of him is still my same impression of him,” said Lance Silva, a Burbank Paradise fire captain who plays drums alongside Avila in a second band, Second Wind. “He’s so personable, so easy to get along with.”
To hear him wowing the crowds at Friday Night Live, a downtown Gilroy concert series, you’d be surprised to know that Avila didn’t recognize his talent until his late teens, out singing karaoke with his friends.
The song was Garth Brooks’ “Two of a Kind,” he remembers. At age 20, he had joined his first band, Lone Heart, based in Los Banos.
By the time he met his wife Kristi, introduced by a friend, he was serenading her with ease. Her favorite was a Diamond Rio tune, “Finish What We Started.”
“His voice is so beautiful,” she said. “I’ve always backed his music career.”
When his Los Banos band opted to hit the road, heading to Nashville, Avila decided to make the leap, leaving his job as a Los Banos officer behind.
Kristi Avila took their baby daughter – the first of their three children – along to Texas. Silva recalls doing the same, relinquishing his job as a firefighter.
“It’s not that easy sometimes,” said Silva, reflecting on Avila’s gamble, and his own. “But when you have the passion for it, you’ve got to follow your heart.”
Fortunately, Avila is still following his heart, close to home. Even as an officer, he’s had a chance to stretch his vocal cords.
When officer Ray Hernandez died abruptly in November 2005 of natural causes, Avila sang Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High On That Mountain” at his funeral, giving melody to the department’s grief.
When police moved into their new Hanna Street headquarters, Avila crooned the national anthem.
At his Friday night concert, officers, police captains and even Chief Gregg Giusiana are mixed among the two-stepping crowds.
He’s even made it onto the stages of the Garlic Festival, Gilroy’s trademark event, at the helm of Silver Creek.
And Avila hasn’t limited himself to covers. The Gilroy officer has written more than 20 songs, mostly ballads in the style of his idols Aaron Neville and George Strait.
“I just fell in love with it,” said Avila.
And so have his fans.
