I hear a lot of interesting showbiz stories in my line of work, but none compare to those of Beki Brindle-Scala.

The firebrand blues guitarist grew up around Indianapolis and started her musical career a little earlier than most. “I guess I sort of did without knowing it,” says Brindle. “The first guitar I remember having was when I was four years old. I think I always had a guitar.”

Brindle played in jazz bands in junior high and high school. At the age of 14, still wearing braces, she got a regular gig at a cafe. “I used to put the guitar on my back and ride my bike to the place,” she recalls. “It was in Broad Ripple. It was called Turtle Island Cafe.”

James “Yank” Rachell, left, and Beki Brindle. (Photo Provided)

Here’s where things get interesting. Thanks to those cafe gigs, she met and began playing with the Elder Statesman of the Blues, James “Yank” Rachell, the Brownsville, Tenn., native who spent most of his career based in Indianapolis.

Rachell took Brindle under his wing. At 18, she was sharing the stage with him and other blues heavy hitters. By 1981, she was lead guitarist for the Indianapolis Blues Coalition Band.

“Yank would come down, and Leroy ‘Lefty’ Bates, Jimmy Walker, the piano player from Chicago, he would come down and he would play with us,” she remembers. “I was very fortunate I had these guys. We were young and we listened to what they had to say.”

“At the time I took this stuff for granted,” Brindle says. “I mean it was definitely special, but I thought everybody on earth had people like this in their lives.”

It gets better: “When I was 20, I was down in Bloomington and Rick Danko [bassist for the legendary group The Band] was playing a gig at club down there,” Brindle recalls.

She was too young to see the show, but, thanks again to the connections she made playing those gigs at Turtle Island Cafe, she found herself in a secluded cabin, trading licks with members of The Band.

“We jammed for three days,” she says. “Rick and Richard [Manuel, pianist and singer for The Band] really took me under their wings. They were mentors. It was fun playing with them. If I had a gig, they’d show up at my gig. If I got a new guitar, Rick Danko would come and check it out. It was like big brother kid of stuff.”

In late 1989, she was hired by Warner/Reprise-signed group, Grace Pool. “It was a cross between U2 and Fleetwood Mac,” she says. “They hired me and we did the second album together. I was playing like three guitars and singing back-up vocals.”

Beki Brindle, right, with legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn. (Photo Provided)

Could it possibly get more legendary? I’m just getting started. How bout the time in 1986 when, just six months after her Fender Stratocaster was stolen, she won a contest and was given a guitar by none other than Stevie Ray Vaughn.

“He gave me the Strat that I still play to this day,” she says. “I met him, his brother [Jimmy Vaughn, known for his work with the Fabulous Thunderbirds] and both bands upon winning this guitar. It was crazy, but my name was pulled out of several thousand names!”

There’s no way this could possibly get any better. But wait…

“I ended up moving to Ireland, and this was when U2 was the biggest band on earth,” she continues. “U2 guys would come and sit in with us.” That’s right, she’s jammed with members of U2.

If you’re mind is not sufficiently blown at this point, maybe this will do the trick. She once recorded a song with her band Windopane called “Jerry Lee Is The King,” which caught the attention of The Killer, whom she would eventually play with. She’s met B.B. King. She met her husband, Ralph Scala, after playing the World Trade Center with Little Sammie Davis. “I was really, really lucky,” she says.

I’m just scratching the surface here. When I hung up the phone with Brindle last week, you could’ve scooped my jaw up off the floor. I had just chatted with a woman who had spent her whole life playing with legendary bluesmen and bonafide founders of Rock ‘N’ Roll, and I was legitimately starstruck.

At present, Brindle lives in New York. She’s wrapping up work on an album which she hopes will be released early next year, and she’s prepping for a European tour. But you can catch the Hoosier native with her band, The Hotheads, at the Eagles Theatre in Wabash at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, as part of the Thursday Night Blues Series. Tickets are $12 in advance, and $15 the day of the show. Visit honeywellcenter.org for tickets and more information.