Robben Ford Discussion

[patocaster]

Saw Lyle Lovett for the first time. It was at the Mountain Winery, 7/11/06. I was very impressed. He is a funny man and his band is great. Lee Sklar and Russ Kunkel, legendary rhythm section were on hand.

-Pat
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BABI MAC BREAKAWAY

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

Anthony Gomes
Music is the Medicine Tour ~ Skippers Smokehouse 8/25/06

The first time I saw Anthony Gomes was November 2002 at the Fort Lauderdale Blues Fest. He was an unknown Canadian artist on a festival lineup that included Shemekia Copeland, Jeff Healy, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Colin James, Sonny Landreth, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Eric Sardinas, Lucky Peterson, E. G. Kight, Teresa James, and Delbert McClinton. The other unknown artist on the lineup was Canadian band, Paul Reddick and the Sidemen.

Anthony has a funky style and a big voice. He plays scortching electric and soulful acoustic blues with a gospel-rock feeling. On stage, he's mesmerizing. Part preacher, part spiritualist -- he speaks from the heart.

Last week, Anthony Gomes released TWO new cds and he's on tour now to promote them. Some interesting folks have been showing up at his recent gigs, including Eric Clapton and Michael McDonald !

Anthony and his band played Skippers in Tampa last night and it was a wild & funky dance-a-thon. His new CDs -- Music is the Medicine and Long Way Home -- have only been in my player for a few hours, but they sound great. They feature 22 original songs!!!

If you have the opportunity to see Anthony Gomes this Fall, check him out. He is on an extensive U.S. & Canadian tour as well as two shows at the Lucerne Blues Festival.
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Travelling by train of thought

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[JohnnyZ]

Been a dry concert summer for me except for the local scene catching my guitar teacher's bands every few weeks. However, have recently purchased tix for GA&F in Portland Maine and Pompano Beach Florida (how's that for north to south?!). And, one that I'm really psyched about is Robin Trower at the Berklee (School of Music) Performance Center in Boston. Disappointed about Robben Ford not being in GA&F but still very excited to go to the shows, and never saw Robin Trower, and the Berklee venue is just so condusive to a great musical experience...

And, all of this happening in just one month- October!

Lokking forward to RW's Jeff Beck review, and Bill Morgan's Robben and Larry reviews...

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[telefunk1]

Great stuff. The band looked familiar and reading through the comments confirmed what I thought - this is a band called Upp, that Beck produced and played with. He played guitar on and produced their first album and produced the second album. Wonderful stuff, very funky stuff for the time (late 1970s). They opened for Beck when I saw him on the Wired tour. They had their own guitar player by then but it was still great. Then Journey played second and totally killed the vibe. .. but then Jan Hammer and band came out and totally blew the roof off Hofheinz Pavillion before out walks Beck and joins in. One of the best shows I ever saw - Beck totally dominated and controlled a guitar like I had never seen before. Just brilliant.

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

About 2000 wildly appreciative fans were treated to a spectacular opening night of Jeff Beck's 2006 US Tour (9/06/06) at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Jeff Beck and his amazing band -- Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Pino Palladino (bass), Jason Rebello (keys) and Beth Hart (vocals) -- blazed through the first 18 songs in about 90 minutes and returned to the stage for two generous encores.

The show was a freewheeling affair -- a thrilling mix of Blues, Rock, Funk, Fusion, and Reggae -- that had the audience on the edge of their seats, or standing, cheering non-stop, and begging for more. Almost every song ended in a standing "O" !!!

Jeff Beck welcomed the crowd's roar with outstretched wings -- arms high in the air.

He played the same guitar all night -- an off-white Fender Strat. I don't have a complete set list, but I think there were 22 songs total -- 17 instrumentals and 5 songs with vocals.

Vocalist Beth Hart was very impressive!!! She's come a long way (baby), since the last time I saw her perform (a solo/opening set) at Jannus Landing in St. Pete. Tonight, her gospel tinged voice carried through the hall like the truly great Blues singer she has become. Her on-stage antics -- pawing at Jeff's strings at the end of a couple songs -- were well received. She joined the band for a total of five songs throughout the night:

* Willie Dixon's "You Shook Me"
* "Morning Dew"
* "I Ain't Superstitious"
* Sam Cooke's "Change is Gonna Come."
* "Going Down"

Beth's voice was noticibly warmer and sweeter on "Change is Gonna Come" than on any other song she sang during the show. It was absolutely beautiful !!!

This was my first time seeing Jeff Beck in concert and hearing many of his instrumentals. I now understand what a huge influence he has been to his followers. I can hear his influence in a lot of the music I listen to (artists such as Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford and Steely Dan).

An official bootleg disc (recorded in April) is being sold at the shows. Some of my favorite instrumentals of the night were:

* "Brush with the Blues"
* "Cause We've Ended as Lovers"
* "Behind the Veil" (a Reggae song)
* "Star Cycle" (a loud guitar song with wonderful interplay between Beck and keyboardist Jason Rebello)
* "Nadia" (a beautiful love song with a bongo-like drum beat)
* "Scatterbrain" (a hard rocking song where Beck takes on the human metronome...Vinnie C.! I really enjoyed watching and hearing Vinnie Colaiuta play!)

The show was amazing !
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Travelling by train of thought

[Bluelobster]

Hat off to you RWarrior , not only you put on a great review as usual but now you are part of the "Experienced" people.
Jeff Beck , one of the greatest electric guitarist still in action.
The man who speaks in strat's ears.

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[Relayer]

Sorry, but the bassist with Jeff on this tour is Randy Hope-Taylor, not Pino. In my opinion Randy is better suited and has more "feel" for the material anyway. What a tight group. I also saw them in Clearwater (3rd time in my life) and it was a show to die for. Tone monster extrordaire!!!

Relayer

[Bluelobster]

Road Warrior great link .27 Mn of music. Quite inspiring.

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[Relayer]

Thanks for the nice welcome RoadWarrior. Randy was absolutely in the pocket all night, no? I was also thinking that Pino would be there. I think he's busy with the Who at the moment. That was one of the tightest bands I have heard. Did you get to see Steely Dan a few weeks before? They were great, but Beck was astonishing.

[roadwarriorfortheblues]