Robben Ford Discussion

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:25 am Post subject: Eric Johnson

I'm psyched to see Eric Johnson is coming back to Tampa Bay January 12th ! He's playing a few dates around Florida. Maybe I'll catch the one in Orlando too Very Happy

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roadwarriorfortheblues

Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks played Tampa Theatre last night to a sold out crowd. The Derek Trucks Band played first, then Susan came out and performed with his band. After a short intermission, The Susan Tedeschi Band played, and Derek joined her band for a few songs.

It was a great night of music. Here's a few photos from the evening:

More photos are posted on my picasaweb link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Roadwarriorfortheblues/DerekSusan122806
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patocaster · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:59 pm Post subject: Great shots!

RWFTB,

Lucky you and thanks for sharing your photogs. They are both big favorites of ours- my wife digs Susan and I think Derek is so good. We saw Derek open for Robben a couple of years ago at the House of Blues in Anaheim. What a great show that was!

Thanks again.

-Pat
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Jugallette

JohnnyZ · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject:

Wow! That first picture is absolutely awesome! Haven't clicked on the web link yet, but I'm sure they're great as well...

Thanks, RW, and glad you saw a great show!

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:53 am Post subject:

Thanks for the kind words JZ and Pat ! I've been enjoying taking pictures again -- I'm still learning how to use the automatic settings on the camera, but it's been fun. These pictures were taken without a flash, from about 12 rows back in the theater. The stage lighting was very low. The original images are completely "black" but when I loaded the pictures into Picasa I was able to adjust the images to what you see here. They are still grainy and a bit out of focus, but they're not too bad for a point-and-shoot camera.

My favorite part of the show was Derek's electric slide interpretation of the traditional song "Greensleeves". I never get sick of hearing great guitar players do this song, especially around the holidays.

A few times during the show, with Susan on stage, Derek also mimicked Susan's voice with his guitar -- sometimes in a beautiful way, and other times to get a chuckle out of the audience. It made me think of the old Charlie Brown TV specials (with the teacher's voice played by some sort of instrument). Maybe anyone looking to develop their own, unique "phrasing" and/or "tone" should start listening more carefully to their spouse... or kids... tone & voice patterns ??????

** mean growl **

Lastly, Tampa Bay is slammed with a lot of great music this time of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing Eric Johnson in a few weeks. I think Roscoe Beck will be touring with him for the Florida shows. I think there's still plenty of tickets for the St. Pete show if anyone is thinking about spending a weekend at the beach. Razz

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BlueRunner · Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject:

If I couldn't be in Tampa for the weekend, San Diego for a visit with my sister-in-law and her family was a fun consolation prize. Saturday night it was Bill Magee at Patrick's II, a great, small, crowded, down-home blues club (much like JJ's in San Jose, Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz, Blue Cafe in Long Beach -- you all know these places, where the locals make you feel like a long-lost friend, even tho' you've never been there before in your life). Magee has an interesting history, having been born in Mississippi, but cutting his teenage guitar chops in Ithaca, NY. He's lived in San Diego for the past 20 years, and brings a great down-home blues sound to everything he does with both his voice and his guitar. (info at www.billmageeblues.com) Sorry I didn't do the investigative journalist thing and get the names of the rest of the guys in the band, but he had a really good harp-congas-vocalist with him, a second guitar player, and fine drummer and bass player. Unlike a lot of places where traditional urban blues guys attract maybe nine patrons, Patrick's II was packed to the rafters with a fun dancing crowd of all ages and persuasions. (It's nice to go to a place where I'm not the oldest guy in the house.)

Yesterday my brother-in-law took us all to the House of Blues' Gospel Brunch. If you've never done one of these at your local House of Blues, you're missing something. Excellent local Gospel choir takin' us all to church after a fantastic brunch of every kind of good down-home real food you can imagine. (I.e., no tofu or little green things artfully arranged on small plates. Just lotsa good beef, chicken, cornbread, grits, shrimp, potatoes, and other healthy stuff.)

Definitely a good way to finish up 2006 and get going with '007.
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- BlueRunner

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject: Paul Geremia

I spent the afternoon captivated by the beautiful guitar playing of Paul Geremia. The concert was held at a UU church in Tampa and only about 15 people attended. Paul Geremia is a world-class guitarist who has been touring the globe with his guitar for almost 40 years. He is a walking encyclopedia of American roots music, and listening to him talk in between songs was almost as wonderful as the music he plays.

One song that Paul played really got to me -- it was titled "Holly," and it was an instrumental written by Steve Mann. I'm unfamiliar with the music of Steve Mann, but I understand he is a brilliant fingerstyle player. I understand he lives on the West Coast (No. Cal?) and that he occasionally plays out. I'd be interested in learning more about Steve's music, if anyone here is familiar with his recordings. Thanks.
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roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:30 am Post subject:

I bought a copy of Steve Mann's most recent CD, "Alive and Pickin'" and I think "Holly" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I was immediately drawn to it when Paul Geremia played it last Sunday, but hearing the recording of Steve Mann play it himself is over-the-top !

The sound quality of some of the tracks is not very good, such as the live tracks from Ash Grove, but Steve's playing throughout the CD is wonderful. There are also three songs on the CD of Steve playing behind Janis Joplin, at Janis' S.F. apartment in 1964 (which I believe is 3 years before the release of her first professional recordings).
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AndyR · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:28 am Post subject:

I saw Taj Mahal Trio and Los Lobos at the "Rams's Head LIVE!" venue in downtown Baltimore.

Taj was amazing, quite a unique guitar style.

Los Lobos rocked the house, full of obviously partisan fans.

But (dare I say it?) I found them to be just a bit monotonous, almost all the songs were minor key, not much in the way of dynamic contrast; everything was loud.

They ARE great, competant musicians, and the audience loved them!

Smile

Andy

bek · Member Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Posts: 22 Location: California

Most recent, Van Morrison (first stop (SF) of his country-style tour, and again last Fall in Berkeley). Fascinating. Earlier this month saw Merle Haggard, and the most interesting facet of that show was the remarkable quietness. Crystal-clear sound, very low volume, everyone staying out of everyone else's way. Only real problem was almost-inaudible bass.

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:03 am Post subject: Steve Forbert

It was a small crowd at Skipper's Sunday afternoon for Steve Forbert. It was one of the coldest days in April that I can remember. The weather should be mid-80s by now.

Steve played a great show. He seems to still enjoy touring and connecting with his fans. Here's a couple shots from the show:

Toby Bonar opened the show with a great set of traditional and original fingerstyle Blues.
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fingerlakes · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:25 am Post subject:

New Riders of the Purple Sage last night in Ithaca,NY.They played all of the crowd favorites with great 3 part vocals. 2 long ,spacey jams that were cool. Buddy Cage tearing it up on pedal steel throughout the whole show.

BlueRunner · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:33 am Post subject:

Another trip up to Santa Cruz, this time for my 35-year college reunion. Man, those people look OLD. Anyway, Nora Cruz at Seabright Brewery on Friday night (http://www.scshop.com/~noracruz/), and then Samba Ngo Saturday night at Moe's Alley (www.samba-ngo.com).

They were doing a brisk business at Moe's selling tickets for the upcoming Santa Cruz Blues Festival, which will include Robben on Sunday. The bartender at Moe's thinks that Robben is one of the nicest people he's ever worked with, and that's saying a lot, given that Moe's has hosted just about everyone in the whole wide world.

By the way, our own Aeolian worked with Nora Cruz a while back, when she was getting back in the biz after an absence of about 10 years. Since I last saw her, her confidence has really been on an upward trend, and she now essentially owns the place whenever she starts singing.
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BlueRunner · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject:

This past Tuesday night, at SOhO, Santa Barbara. My first time ever to hear singer-songwriter David Wilcox live. Blew me away! The guy just has wonderful stage presence. And having heard only his albums over the years, I never knew what an engaging storyteller he is.

And the guitar work is pretty amazing, too. He plays a Rainsong that he tunes in some of the wierdest alternates I've ever heard, with the lowest string usually down at C or below so that it sounds as if he has a bass player with him. He uses two capos, one clamped lower to set the key, and the other, a partial capo, clamped anywhere from three to eight frets above the lower, to make the alternate tunings even stranger. For many of the chords he uses, he has some fingers below the "upper" capo, and some above. The effect is as if he's able to do with a guitar fretboard what a giant-handed player like McCoy Tyner can do with a piano keyboard.

All in all, a great evening.
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JohnnyZ · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject:

Beatlejuice & Friends- a tribute concert in honor of the life of Brad Delp, Thursday 5/3, at the Regent Theater in Arlington, MA.

This tribute started as a one night event, but due to overwhelming demand, it becames 3 consecutive nights plus at least one other sometime in June (which I'm guessing will turn into another 3 or more night event).

Beatlejuice has been a long-standing band in the Boston and north area for many years. As a resident of their playing area, I took for granted their many shows figuring that I'd catch a convenient one some day soon. Then, the tragedy of Brad's death struck...

So, Thursday's show was the middle of the 3 shows. Wednesday was supposed to be a rehearsal night at the Regent, but it turned into a performance night. I think that it made the show I witnessed on Thursday that much better. Plus, I found out that many of the performers at my show were there for that one night only...

Anyway, the show I saw turned into a nonstop 4 hour Beatlesfest- everything from the early Beatles to their last album (not in order) . And, expertly done, instrumentally note for note, and vocals to vocals. The scenario was having different individual vocalists singing an average of 3 songs that fit their style. All were incredble, especially a 5-guy acapella group beautifully singing "Because" and "You Never Give Me Your Money". And, for our RWFTB, Charlie Farren did an awesome vocal job of closing out the show with the last 3 songs, including what he claimed was his favorite Beatles tune- Penny Lane.

What an awsome, awesome night!